Utsunomiya Yoritsuna

Utsunomiya Yoritsuna (c. 1178–1259), fifth head of the Utsunomiya clan, was a Kamakura gokenin and noted waka poet. Fostered to Oyama Tomomitsu, he fought in the Ōshū campaign of 1189 and around 1204 became shugo of Iyo Province. In 1205, suspected in the Makishi plot against Shogun Sanetomo, he took vows as Rensei and retired to Ogura in Kyoto.

A close friend of Fujiwara no Teika, he married a daughter to Teika's son Tameie and made the Utsunomiya circle a third center of court poetry. He died in Kyoto in 1259 aged eighty-two.