Fujiwara no Sueyoshi (藤原季能)
FUJIWARA no Sueyoshi (1153 - 1211) was a Kuge (court noble) near the end of Heian Period and the early Kamakura Period.
His father was FUJIWARA no Toshimori, Taikotaigogu Gon no daibu (provisional master of the grand Empress dowager's household.)
His mother was the daughter of MINAMOTO no Masakane.
He was ranked as Shosanmi Hyobukyo (Senior Third Rank, chief of Hyobu.)
He hailed from the Rokujo Toke (the Rokujo Fujiwara family) whose ancestor was FUJIWARA no Akisue.
He was a close associate of the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa, and in 1179 when TAIRA no Kiyomori confined the Cloistered Emperor to Toba-dono Palace and dismissed a group of many of his kinshin (trusted vassals), Sueyoshi was relieved of his post as the Echigo no kuni no kami (Governor of Echigo Province) (Coup of the Third Year of Jisho.)
The following year, however, according to the wishes of Kiyomori he received the Cloistered Emperor in his home in Hachijo Bomon and this suggests that part of the Taira family also had a certain degree of confidence in him. Behind this background, it was related to the fact that the wife of Sueyoshi was the daughter of TAIRA no Motomori (the second son of Kiyomori), and her presence also served as a kind of lubricant between both sides, the Cloistered Emperor and the Taira family, who were deeply opposed to each other.
Even after the fall of the Taira family following the Jisho-Juei War, he served the Cloistered Emperor closely and kept a certain position. Even after the pro-Shogunate forces, including FUJIWARA no Kanezane, took the helm of the Imperial court due to the intervention by MINAMOTO no Yoritomo in 1185, he was said to have organized a group of close associates of the Cloistered Emperor with TAKASHINA no Yasutsune, FUJIWARA no Takafusa, FUJIWARA no Sanenori and others in opposition.
He also acted as a kajin (waka poet) and his daughter married FUJIWARA no Sadaie.