Sugawara no Takasue (菅原孝標)
SUGAWARA no Takasue (born in 972, year of death unknown) was an aristocrat and zuryo (provincial governor) who lived in the Heian period. He was a son of Suketada SUGAWARA. One of his ancestors from four generations earlier was Udaijin (Minister of the Right) SUGAWARA no Michizane.
He was the biological father of SUGAWARA no Takasue no musume, who was the author of 'Sarashina Nikki' (The Sarashina Diary). In 1001, he was appointed to Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade). He was later appointed to Assistant Governor of Kazusa Province in 1017, and was then appointed to an officer of Shogoinoge (Senior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade) in Hitachi Province in 1032. Although he was born to an academic family, he never became Daigaku no kami (Director of the Bureau of Education) or Monjo hakase (professor of literature).
According to Sarashina Nikki, he returned to Kyoto 4 years after he worked as an officer in Hitachi in 1036, and it is believed that he was again appointed an officer of one of the provinces in Japan when he was an old man. The scene of the final farewell between the father being transferred to the assigned province and the family he was never to see again was one of the most famous scenes in Sarashina Nikki (although he safely returned home later). There are no further records about him, but there is no doubt that he outlived the average life expectancy of people who lived in the Heian period.