Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 (ca. 872-945) is famous as a poet, a critic and a diarist. As one of the compilers of the Kokinshû, and the writer of its Japanese (kana) preface, he helped to shape the style and imagery of all waka that followed him. As a prolific poet, who composed many poems to accompany pictures on folding screens, he contributed to the introduction of fictionality to Japanese poetry. Finally, as the author of the Tosa Nikki (Tosa Diary), written in the persona of a woman, he laid the groundwork for the triumph of women’s literature later in the Heian period.

In the Japan 2001 Waka, the following poems are by Tsurayuki: