was a Japanese waka poet of the early Kamakura period.[1] [2] He was also an accomplished kemari player.[1] [2] [3] and one of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.[3] [4]
He was a son of,[1] and the ancestor of the Asukai family, who were known for their skill at both poetic composition and kemari.[1] [4] Being of Fujiwara stock,[1] he was also known as .[2] [3] [4] Among his grandchildren was the poet Masaari.[5] [6] He made a private collection, the Asukai-shū, which was posthumously edited by his grandson in 1292. Twenty-two of his poems were included in the Shin Kokin Wakashū, and a total of 134 in the imperial anthologies.
Masatsune served three emperors, Go-Toba, Tsuchimikado and Juntoku, in addition to working under the Kamakura shogunate.[1]
Masatsune studied waka under Fujiwara no Shunzei and from 1201[3] served in the .[1] He served as one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū, along with Shunzei's son Teika.[1] [2] Some twenty-two of his own poems were included in the imperial collection.[1] A total of 134 of his poems were included in it and later imperial collections.[3] He also compiled a private waka collection, the, which was edited by his grandson Masaari in 1292.[1]
The following poem by him was included as No. 94 in Teika's famous Ogura Hyakunin Isshu:
| Japanese text | Romanized Japanese[7] | English translation[8] |
み吉野の 山の秋風 さ夜ふけて ふるさと寒く 衣うつなり | Mi-yoshino no yama no aki-kaze sa-yo fukete furu-sato samuku koromo utsu nari | The autumn wind blowing down the mountain brings on the night. At the old capital of Yoshino it gets colder, and I can hear pounding - cloth being fulled. |