Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and waka poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu collection. He is also known as Zai Go-Chūjō, Zai Go, Zai Chūjō or Mukashi-Otoko.
Ariwara no Narihira by Kanō Tan'yū, 1648.
The reputed site of Narihira's residence, near Karasuma Oike Station
Ariwara no Narihira looking for the ghost of Ono no Komachi, in an 1891 print by Yoshitoshi
The Mount Yoshida grave site
Waka is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although waka in modern Japanese is written as 和歌, in the past it was also written as 倭歌, and a variant name is yamato-uta (大和歌).
The Kokin Wakashū is an early (c. 900) anthology of waka poetry which fixed the form of Japanese poetry.