Lord Fujiwara no Takanobu, Senior Fourth Rank Lower Grade, Provisional Master of the Right Capital Office

正四位下行右京権大夫藤原朝臣隆信 (1142-1205)

Takanobu was the son of Junior Secretary of the Empress’ Household Office Fujiwara no Tametsune 藤原為経, and a lady known, among other things, as Bifukumon’in no Kaga 美福門院加賀 (?-1193). Tametsune took orders shortly after Takanobu’s birth, after which Bifukumon’in no Kaga separated from him and became the wife of Fujiwara no Shunzei, later giving birth to Fujiwara no Teika, making the two men half-brothers – Takanobu was essentially raised by Shunzei as his own son. His court career was reasonable, if not outstanding, ending as Provisional Director of the Bureau of Horses, Right Division, at Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, after which he became an increasingly devout Buddhist and eventually took orders. In his youth, he was feted as a poet of similar talent to Fujiwara no Sadanaga (Jakuren), but while the latter’s poetic skills and abilities continued to improve after he entered the religious life, Takanobu’s did not and his poetry attracted little praise, a fact which reputedly made him lament he had not died an early death, with his poetic repuation intact. He was, however, a skilled portrait painter, and is known to have written at least two monogatari, a historical work called Iyayotsugi 弥世継, and a fictional tale called Ukinami うきなみ, neither of which, unfortunately, is extant.

Takanobu has the following poems in the Roppyaku-ban Uta Awase: