Fujiwara no Noritada (藤原範忠)
Fujiwara no Noritada (date of birth and death unknown) was a court noble and a Shinto priest in the end of the Heian period. He was from the Southern House of the Fujiwara clan, and he was the eldest son of the chief priest of Atsuta-jingu Shrine, FUJIWARA no Suenori. His birth mother was a daughter of MINAMOTO no Yukitoo. His wife was Bifukumonin, nyobo (a court lady), Kazusa. His children included Tadasue, Kiyosue, Ningyo, the wife of Yoshiyasu ASHIKAGA (the mother of Yoshikane ASHIKAGA).
The post of Atsuta Daiguji (the highest priest serving at Atsuta Shrine in Owari Province) was offered to his younger brother, FUJIWARA no Norimasa while his father, Suenori was still alive. However, Noritada took up the post of Daiguji instead of Norimasa in 1155 when his father passed away. Through this fact, it is assumed that the relationship between Noritada and his father was not good.
In 1159, he was promoted from nuidononosuke, monjoshodokoro to Shorokuinojo (Senior Sixth Rank, Upper Grade), Hyobushojo. In 1153, he was appointed to Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade) as well as his brother in law, MINAMOTO no Yoshitomo, and he further promoted to Sakon no shogen (Lieutenant the Left Division of Inner Palace Guards), and takumi-no-kami (the head of Bureau of Skilled Artisans) in 1161. He married Bifukumonin, nyobo (a court lady), Kazusa, and his sotomago (a grandchild from a daughter married into another family), Yoshikane ASHIKAGA, became a Kurodo (Chamberlain) of Hachijo-in, a princess of Bifukumonin. From this, it is assumed that he approached Bifukumonin.
Besides, Yura gozen, the lawful wife of MINAMOTO no Yoshitomo was Noritada's sister, and Noritada politically seemed to have a close relationship with MINAMOTO no Yoshitomo. Noritada offered Yoshitomo his forces as a distant relative in the Hogen War. However, in the Heiji War in 1159, he didn't offer his force to support Yoshitomo's army, and instead he captured Yoshitomo's fifth son, MINAMOTO no Mareyoshi (his mother was Yura gozen) who was hiding in Suruga Province after the War and took him to the imperial court.
Even after that, he served as a vassal close aide of the retired emperor Goshirakawa, but was dismissed from his post and arrested for the reason that he cursed the emperor in 1161, and was transported to the Suo Province in the following year. At that time, Norimasa took up the post of Daiguji again, and around 1170, Noritada who was pardoned and returned to the post of Daiguji (the post of Daiguji went go back and forth; in 1178, a grandchild of Noritada, Tadakane succeeded the post under the order of TAIRA no Tokiko, and in 1181, Norimasa again took up his the post which was the third time for him).
A daughter of Noritada married Yoshiyasu ASHIKAGA as the adopted daughter of his grandfather, Suenori, and had Yoshikane and Yoshifusa ASHIKAGA with Yoshiyasu. From this relation, many of his descendants acted with the ASHIKAGA clan.