Sanetomo was haikara? In what aspects and from who's point of view? Admittedly, I don't know the man's poetry that well, but you'd think that from the court's point of view, he'd be rather, well, not haikara.

(And, I fully believe, not from the point of view of some of the people living in Kamakura. Of course, those might only be those who decided to move from Kyoto for their careers, like the onmyoji and some secretaries....)

Well, according to Kishida Kunio. He says:

私はまた、源実朝をハイカラな詩人だと思つてゐる。それは、武将にして歌詠みであるといふやうな事実からではない。その歌風についていふのである。

I will admit too that I'm not familiar enough with Sanetomo's "歌風" to say whether I agree with this or not. I'll try to look into it.

Well, I might not agree on the style issue, but I'm glad it's not the warrior-poet aspect for him. Because, not that special, really. (I mean, half of the tragic episodes of the <i>Heike</i> for cripes' sake.)