Tokudaiji Sanekata (徳大寺実堅)
Sanekata TOKUDAIJI (January 10, 1791- December 15, 1858) was Kugyo (the top court officials) in the latter part of the Edo period. His father was Sukehira TAKATSUKASA, his mother was Ie no Nyobo (a lady-in-waiting) from the Yamagata clan and his foster father was Kinmichi TOKUDAIJI. His wife was Nobuko, a daughter of Teruhisa DAIGO. His children were Kinisa YOTSUJI, Michitomi NAKANOIN and Sadagimi (定君) (a wife of Morosue SAIONJI) as well as an adopted son Kinito TOKUDAIJI (the father of Sanetsune TOKUDAIJI, Kinmochi SAIONJI, Tomoito SUMITOMO and so on).
He was assigned to jiju (a chamberlain) in 1801 and smoothly promoted further after that. He was deeply relied on by Emperor Ninko, and negotiated with Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) as buke tenso (liaison officers between the imperial court and the military government) after he was shown a plan to found gakumonjo (later Gakushuin University) by the Emperor.
He was assigned to the minister of the center and Konoefu (the Headquarters of the Inner Palace Guards) in 1848 and given Junior First Rank when he resigned in the following year.
Kageki KAGAWA who was also known as a scholar of Japanese classical literature had an experience to serve Sanekata. It is said that Sanekata personally learned waka from Kageki.