Yoshishige no Yasutane was born in about 933 to the respected Kamo 加茂 family of
yin/yang divination practitioners in the imperial capital of
Kyoto. Early success in historical and literary studies may have contributed to Yasutane's ambition to establish a new and distinct aristocratic lineage, which explains why he changed his family name from Kamo to Yoshishige. Despite possessing obvious talent and having trained under celebrated teachers of the day, Yasutane ended up having an unremarkable career as a journeyman official within the imperial bureaucracy. He rose only to the middling status of junior sixth rank, and the highest official post he occupied was that of . "Although my rank is low," Yasutane tells us in
Chiteiki, "my position earns me respect." It did not, however, earn him much money. By his own account, it was a lack of funds that inspired him to move away from the capital's elite northern district to build a "pond pavilion", a in the more humble area in the city's south. ==Background and Influences==