A mid-Heian poet said to descend from the great general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. He held modest provincial posts and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortals, with some forty poems in imperial anthologies. He was also a celebrated player of kemari, the courtly football, and is recorded as keeping the ball aloft for 206 kicks before Emperor Daigo. His Hyakunin Isshu poem, composed on a journey to Yamato, mistakes the white snow of Yoshino village at daybreak for the light of the lingering moon.
朝ぼらけ 有明の月と 見るまでに
吉野の里に 降れる白雪
Asaborake ariake no tsuki to miru made ni / Yoshino no sato ni fureru shirayuki
At daybreak, so bright I mistook it for the light of the lingering moon, white snow lies piled over the village of Yoshino.