Fujiwara no Motozane (藤原元真)
FUJIWARA no Motozane (date of birth and death unknown) was a kajin (waka poet) in the mid-Heian period. He was from the Southern House of the Fujiwara clan and his father was FUJIWARA no Kiyokuni. He was one of the 36 Immortal Poets.
He served as Kaga no jo (the third officer of regional administration in Kaga) and Shurishikishojo (officer of department for building and maintenance of facilities), then in 961, he was conferred Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade.)
In 966, he became a Tanba no kuni no suke (officer in charge of regional administration in Tanba). Although his official rank was low, he presented poems in poetry competitions such as Nyobo utaawase and Tentoku Dairi utaawase of the Imperial Court.
He was also selected for Saki no jugoban utaawase (poetry competition by 30 poets in 2 groups.)
His waka poems were selected for Chokusen wakashu (Imperial anthologies of Japanese poetry) after 'Goshui Wakashu' (the fourth imperial anthology) was compiled, and he privately compiled 'Motozane shu.'
Motozane shu
Motozane shu is a private waka collection compiled by FUJIWARA no Motozane. The existing transcription and published books are thought to have been derived from the same original document.
There are four types of books: Nishihonganji bon (books) (337 poems), Shohohan bon (335 poems), Books attributed to FUJIWARA no Toshinari (335 poems), and Book stock of the Imperial Household Archives (337 poems.)
It is thought that all these types of books are the same in content, and that their difference is due to scribal errors in their transcription. The first half consists mainly of public poems including Byobu uta (screen poems) and Utaawase uta (poems composed in poetry competitions). The last half consists mainly of private poems including Koiuta (Lovers Poetry) and Zoka (Other Poetry).