Fujiwara no Sukeyo (藤原佐世)
Fujiwara no Sukeyo (847 ~ 897) was a Teishin (retainer of the Imperial Court) and scholar of the early Heian period. He was born to the Ceremonial House of the Fujiwara Clan and the great-grandson of Fujiwara no Tanetsugu. His father was Minbu Taifu (Senior Assistant Minister of Popular Affairs), Fujiwara no Sugao.
He was ranked Jushiinoge (Junior Forth Rank, Lower Grade), and appointed to Daigaku no Kami (Director of the Bureau of Education), Shikibu Shoyu (Junior Assistant of the Ministry of Ceremonies) and Udaiben (Major Controller of the Right.)
History in Brief
He worked as a Keishi (household superintendent) for Fujiwara no Mototsune. He studied as a disciple of Sugawara no Koreyoshi and became a Monjo Tokugosho (Distinguished Scholar of Letters) and in 879, he was appointed to Jidoku (Imperial tutor) of Emperor Yozei and gradually added to his laurels as a scholar.
In 887, when he was a Monjo Hakase (professor of literature), he discovered letters regarding "Ako" (another name for Sessho (regent) or Kanpaku (chief adviser to the Emperor)) in the Shochoku (imperial edict) and they were from Emperor Uda to Mototsune written by Tachibana no Hiromi, saying that "Ako is merely a title and without substance or official duties" which caused the so-called "Ako Controversy."
He was appointed to Mutsu no Kami (governor of Mutsu Province) in 891 when Mototsune died, and was virtually ostracized from the national political arena. One version says that he was appointed to Udaiben in 897 and died of disease on the way back to the capital of Kyo. In another version, he died in 898.