Fujiwara no Atsutoshi (藤原敦敏)
FUJIWARA no Atsutoshi (918-947) was a noble in the mid Heian period. He was the legitimate son of the Sessho Daijo daijin (Regent and the Grand Minister) Seishinko FUJIWARA no Saneyori. He was the father of FUJIWARA no Sukemasa, one of the Sanseki (three great calligraphers). He was Shogoinoge (Senior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade) and served as Sashosho (Minor Captain of the Left Division of Inner Palace Guards).
Career
While he held various posts including Sakone no shosho (Minor Captain of the Left Division of Inner Palace Guards), he caught the plague, which was raging in 947, and was survived by his grandfather, FUJIWARA no Tadahira and his father, Saneyori who was, right before this time, promoted to Sadaijin (Minister of the left). Okagami (The Great Mirror) described that Saneyori wrote a poem in grief when he knew that a horse having been presented to Atsutoshi by Togoku (the eastern part of Japan, particularly Kanto region) arrived after his death.
For Atsutoshi, FUJIWARA no Tokihira, who is notorious for having brought down SUGAWARA no Michizane, was his granduncle and also his grandfather on the mother's side. Many of the descendants from Tokihira were short-lived, which was publicized as being due to a curse by the vengeful ghost of Michizane, and Atsutoshi was unfortunately no exception.
Politically, regardless of being the legitimate son of the Northern House of the Fujiwara clan, he lived in the shadow of his grandfather and his father, but his poems remain in Gosen Wakashu (Later selected collection of Japanese poetry).