Kyogoku Tamekane (1254-1332) was a great-grandson of
Fujiwara no Teika, the most influential poet of the
Kamakura era of
Japan.
Teika had taught that to write tanka poetry one should "make old tanka your teachers. Those who steep their minds in the old style and learn their diction from the masters cannot fail to live in song."
By the time of Tamekane the traditions of tanka court poetry had become leathery and tough rather than supple and flexible. Tamekane was a person of strong character (which brought him to be exiled twice) who strove to find new pathways in tanka poetry.