Go-Toba In Kunai-kyō
Illustration — 17th-century depiction of Kunai Kunai-kyō was a 13th-century Japanese poet, painter, and lady-in-waiting to Emperor Go-Toba. A prominent poet during the Kamakura period, she is considered one of the Thirty-Six Female Immortals of Poetry. Along with Princess Shikishi and Shunzei's daughter, she is recognized as one of the greatest women poets of the 13th century.
Also recorded as Kunai-kyō · Go-Toba In Kunai-kyo · Go-Toba In Kunai-kyou
Go-Toba In Kunai-kyō

清原雪信 · 女房三十六人歌合 · Public domain
- Born
- 1150 · Japan.
- Died
- 1207
- Nationality
- Japan
- Occupation
- poet · writer
- Languages
- Japanese
In this article
Poetry
Among other uta-awase, she competed in the Poetry Match in 1500 Rounds convened by Go-Toba in the palace in 1201, where 30 poets were commissioned to write hundred-poem sequences. She was the daughter of Minamoto no Moromitsu and his wife (personal name Aki), the daughter of the painter Kose Munemochi, and the sister of Minamoto no Tomochika, who was himself recognized as one of the New Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry. Her father was a descendant of Emperor Murakami through Minister of the Left Toshifusa. Her mother had been a lady-in-waiting to retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa and was a famous koto player. Kunaikyō was recognized as an extraordinarily diligent and hard-working poet; in the Mumyōshō by the later poem Kamo no Chōmei, Kunaikyō surrounded herself with books and scrolls from beginning to end and worked on her poems day and night until her father warned her that it would be deleterious to her health. It was believed that her death was a result of her great exertion and she was greatly admired and lamented by the poet Jakuren. The Sasamegoto, a poetic treatise by the 15th century poet Shinkei, stated that her poetic labours were so exhausting that she spat blood.
One poems she wrote for the hundred-poem sequence was recorded in the Masukagami.
Identity
Go-Toba In Kunai-kyō is recorded with the occupation writer. Recorded as a citizen of Japan. The authorities additionally record the headings Kunai-kyō, Go-Toba In Kunai-kyo and Go-Toba In Kunai-kyou.
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1150
Go-Toba In Kunai-kyō was born in 1150.
1207
Go-Toba In Kunai-kyō died on 1 January 1207.
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Kunai-kyō, revision 1353665404 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record.
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Mizukaki, Hisashi. 女房三十六歌仙. www.asahi-net.or.jp.
- 2.Mizukaki, Hisashi. 宮内卿(後鳥羽院宮内卿) 千人万首. www.asahi-net.or.jp.
- 3.Rie Horii "Miyauchiro Kazuno Annotation Declaration - From" Mizunase Koiko Five Vocal Songs "" "Literary Study for Japanese Literature Women" 17, 33 - 49 September 30, 2004 Kazama Shobo
- 4.Hosoda, Eishi. Thirty Six Immortal Women Poets. WW Norton. 154, 170. 1991. 978-0-8076-1256-9.
- 5.Miner, Earl. The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature. Princeton University Press. 228. 2020-09-01. 978-0-691-21838-0.
- 6.Stanford University Press. Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei. 345–346. 2008-04-16. 978-0-8047-7939-5.
- 7.Huey, Robert N. The Making of Shinkokinshū. BRILL. 65. 2020-03-23. 978-1-68417-365-5.
- 8.McCullough, Helen Craig. Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology. Stanford University Press. 453–454. 1990. 978-0-8047-1960-5.
- 9.Addiss, Stephen. Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture: An Illustrated Sourcebook. University of Hawaii Press. 99. 2006-01-31. 978-0-8248-2018-3.
- 10.Pandey, Rajyashree. Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei. University of Michigan Press. 102–103. 2020-06-01. 978-0-472-90189-0.
Citations
References
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authority record
Partially resolved
A further 1 witness is held back from this article because the person or object named in it is not yet resolved to this record. They are kept, not discarded, and return once the identity is established.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
37,117 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Gö Lotsawa Zhönnu-pelAuthor
- Go-Fukakusa-in no NijōAuthor
- Go-Saga-in chūnagon no tenjiAuthor
- Go-TobaAuthor
- Go-Toba-in no ShimotsukeAuthor
- Gobinda HalderAuthor
- Godabarish MishraAuthor
- Godfrey HenschenAuthor
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