Introduction
Yoshimine no Munesada (良岑宗貞), better known as Henjō (遍昭 or 遍照, 816 – February 12, 890) was a Japanese waka poet and Buddhist priest.
Thanks to a reference to him in the preface of Kokin Wakashū, he is listed as one of the six best waka poets and one of the thirty-six immortals of poetry.
Biography
Munesada was the eighth son of Dainagon Yoshimine no Yasuyo (良岑安世), a son of Emperor Kanmu who was relegated to civilian life.He began his career as a courtier, and was later appointed to the position of kurōdo, a sort of Chamberlain, of Emperor Ninmyō. In 849, he was raised to the Head of Kurōdo (蔵人頭, Kurōdo no Tō). After Emperor Nimmyō died in 850, Munesada became a monk out of his grief, taking the religious name Henjō (literally “Universally Illuminated”).
He was a priest of the Tendai school. In 877 he founded Gangyō-ji (元慶寺) in Yamashina, in the southeast part of Kyoto, but continued to be active in court politics. In 869 he was given another temple, Urin-in or Unrin-in (雲林院), in the north of Kyoto and managed both temples. In 885 he was ranked high priest and was called Kazan Sōjō (花山僧正).
He was rumored to have had a love affair with the famous female poet Ono no Komachi.
Thirty-five of his waka were included in the imperial anthologies of waka including Kokin Wakashū. In the preface Ki no Tsurayuki criticized him: “he knows how to construct waka, but there is less real emotion. It is like when you see a picture of a woman and it moves your heart”.
His son, Sosei, was also a waka poet and a monk.
Poetry
Henjō was famous for the following poem from the Hyakunin Isshu:
天つ風雲の通ひ路吹き閉ぢよ
をとめの姿しばしとどめむ
ama tsu kaze kumo no kayoiji fuki-toji yo
otome no sugata shibashi todomen
Breezes of Heaven, blow closed the pathway through the clouds to keep a little longer these heavenly dancers from returning home.
(Kokin Wakashū 17:872)