Akimitsu Fujiwara

Japanese: 藤原顕光 - ふじわらのあきみつ

Year of death: May 25, 1021 (July 7, 1021)
Year of birth: Tenkei 7 (944)
A nobleman in the mid-Heian period. He was called the Left Minister of Horikawa. He was the son of Kanpaku Kanemichi and the daughter of Prince Motohira. He was promoted to the Right Minister at the age of 53, and to the Left Minister in 1017. Due to his good family background, he served as a minister for a quarter of a century, but he was ignorant of politics (Court ceremonies), and he would constantly look at notes in his pocket during ceremonies and make frequent blunders, so he was criticized by his cousin Fujiwara no Michinaga and the great scholar Fujiwara no Sanesuke as being "extremely foolish." In dealing with the harem, he married his daughter Motoko (Joukoden no Nyōgo) to Emperor Ichijō, but she gave birth to no prince, and after the emperor's death, she disowned him for having an adulterous affair. He married his second daughter Nobuko to the Crown Prince, Prince Atsuakira (Nyōgo), but after that, Michinaga's daughter Hiroko entered the palace, and Nobuko, troubled by this, died of an illness. Because of this, when Hiroko died, people said it was the work of the vengeful spirits of Nobuko and Kenko.

(Oboriya Hisashi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：治安1.5.25(1021.7.7)
生年：天慶7(944)
平安中期の公卿。堀川左大臣と呼ばれる。関白兼通と元平親王の娘の子。53歳で右大臣,寛仁1(1017)年左大臣に昇った。家柄のよさで大臣を4半世紀務めたが政治(朝儀)に疎く,儀式の最中に懐中のメモをひっきりなしに見たり,失態を演じることたびたびであったことから,従兄弟の藤原道長や碩学の藤原実資らから「至愚の又至愚なり」と批判されている。後宮対策では一条天皇に入れた娘元子(承香殿女御)に皇子の誕生がなく,天皇の死後に密通事件を起こしたため勘当した。次女の延子を東宮敦明親王に入れたが(女御),その後道長の娘寛子が入内,悩んだ延子は病死する。そんなことからのち寛子が死んだとき世間で延子と顕光の怨霊のしわざといわれた。

(朧谷寿)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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