Name Minamoto Toru Died September 21, 895 AD | Role Poet | |
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Minamoto no Tōru (源 融, 822 – September 21, 895) was a Japanese poet and statesman. He was born the son of Emperor Saga and a member of the Saga Genji clan. He is sometimes mentioned as the model for Hikaru Genji in important Japanese literary classic The Tale of Genji.
Under his title Kawara no Sadaijin 河原左大臣, he is the author of poem 14 in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu poetry anthology.
The poem reads:
Like Michinoku prints,
Of the tangled leaves of ferns,
It is because of you,
That I have become confused;
But my love for you remains.
The poem also appears in the Kokin shu, no. 724:
Michinoku no shinobu-mojizuri
tare yue ni midaresomenishi ware naranakuni
The dye with hare's-foot-fern, of Michinoku-
who else would have made me feel as disturbed?
The poet is also famous for making a replica of the uta-makura Shiogama ("poetic place name") in his garden.
His tomb resides at the Seiryō-ji, a Buddhist temple situated on what was once Saga Moor in Kyoto.