Sari Fujiwara - Fujiwara no Sukemasa

Japanese: 藤原佐理 - ふじわらのすけまさ

Year of death: 4.7 (998)
Year of birth: Tenkei 7 (944)
A nobleman and calligrapher in the mid-Heian period. Along with Ono no Michikaze and Fujiwara no Yukinari, he is one of the "Three Traces" and is also known as "Sari." He was the son of the Left Shosho Atsutoshi. His father died when he was four years old and he was raised by his grandfather Saneyori. He served as a kurōdo (secretary) and left shōben (senior councillor), and in 978 he became a councillor and was ranked as a nobleman. He was then appointed governor of Sanuki Province and Dazai Daini (major second vice-president), but in 994 he was involved in a fight with a priest at Usa Hachimangu Shrine, and the following year he was suspended from his position as Dazai and recalled to Kyoto. Two years later he was allowed to return to the position and attend the morning ceremony, and was in the position of Shosanmi (senior third rank) and Hyobukyō (minister of military affairs), but he died the following year. He was chosen to write the shikishi-gata (colored paper) for the Yuki no Nuki folding screen at the Daijō-e ceremony for the three emperors En'yū, Kazan, and Ichijō, and he also achieved many other honors. Among the surviving remains, "Shikaishi" written when he was 26 years old shows the influence of Ono no Michikaze's style of calligraphy, but letters written from his middle age to later years, such as the "Kokushinbuncho (Onnashacho)," "Rikakucho," and "Toubencho," are all magnificent works that demonstrate Sari's unique, unrestrained, and excellent style of calligraphy.

(Minoru Furuya)

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

Japanese:

没年：長徳4.7(998)
生年：天慶7(944)
平安中期の公卿,能書。小野道風,藤原行成と共に「三跡」のひとりで,「さり」とも称される。左少将敦敏の子。4歳で父と死別し,祖父の実頼に養育される。蔵人,左少弁などを歴任,天元1(978)年に参議となり公卿に列した。次いで讃岐国司,あるいは大宰大弐などに任ぜられたが,正暦5(994)年宇佐八幡宮の神人と乱闘する事件により,翌年に大宰職を停止,京都に召還された。2年後に再度復帰して朝参を許され,当時正三位・兵部卿に在任したが,翌年没した。円融・花山・一条の3代の天皇の大嘗会において,悠紀主基屏風の色紙形の筆者に選ばれたほか,数々の栄誉ある執筆を遂げている。現存遺品では,26歳の筆になる「詩懐紙」には小野道風の書風の影響が窺われるが,「国申文帖(女車帖)」「離洛帖」「頭弁帖」など中年から晩年にかけての書状は,いずれも佐理独自の奔放闊達なすぐれた書風を樹立した見事なものである。

(古谷稔)

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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