Koremune no Hirokoto (惟宗広言)
KOREMUNE no Hirokoto (year of birth and death unknown, 1172? - 1187?) was a descendant of the Hata clan.
The formal document handed down in the Shimazu clan says Hirokoto was the clan's ancestor. He was a waka poet in the Heian period. He was the son of KOREMUNE no Motokoto who was monjosho (a student of literary studies in the Imperial University) and later became Hyuga no kuni no kami (the governor of Hyuga Province). A historical source of the Shimazu clan says that Hirokoto's wife was the younger sister (called Tango no tsubone) of Yoshikazu HIKI, but this is not so sure because there exists no other evidence about it.
Hirokoto was also monjosho, and after serving as Dazai-fu shokan (Minor Judge at Dazai-fu offices), he received the investiture of Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank) and Chikugo no kuni no kami (the governor of Chikugo Province). He served close to the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa. Generally speaking, Hirokoto is known as the father of Tadahisa SHIMAZU. There exist two theories on the relationship between Tadahisa and Hirokoto, and one says Tadahisa was the real son of Hirokoto, while the other says Tadahisa was the adopted child of Hirokoto. The real-son theory has come to be strongly criticized recently, partly because Tadahisa and his descendants did not inherit the Chinese characters that were used for indicating "Hirokoto" (i.e. "広言").