Minamoto no Michinari (源道済)

MINAMOTO no Michinari (year of birth unknown - 1019) was a government official (esp. one of low to medium rank) and a waka poet in the mid-Heian period. He was a son of MINAMOTO no Masakuni and a grandchild of MINAMOTO no Saneakira. He is regarded as one of the Chuko sanjurokkasen (medieval 36 Immortal Poets).

He successively held monjosho (a student of literary studies in the Imperial University) and then served as Kunai shojo (Junior Secretary of the Sovereign's Household), Kurodo (Chamberlain), and Shikibu taijo (Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Ceremonial). Finally he was promoted to Shogoinoge (Senior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade) Dazai no shoni (Junior Assistant Governor-General of Dazai-fu offices), and he died there. It is said that he was active in the poetry circle in the era of FUJIWARA no Michinaga and took part in compiling 'Shui Wakashu' (Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poems). Furthermore, he was also accomplished at Chinese prose and poetry. His waka poems were selected for chokusen wakashu (anthologies of poems collected by Imperial command) starting when 'Shui Wakashu' was compiled and onwards. He privately compiled 'Michinari shu' and wrote 'Michinari jittai' (10 patterns of poem style) which is a Kagakusho (a book on the study of waka poems).

[Original Japanese]