Ariwara no Motokata (在原元方, dates unknown, fl. late 800s – 900s CE) was a Japanese waka poet of the early Heian period.

He was included in the Late Classical Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and thirty-three of his poems were included in poetry collections commissioned by the court.

His birth and death dates are unknown, and the details of his life are also uncertain,^[1] but he was the son of Ariwara no Muneyana (died 898), the first son of Ariwara no Narihira (825—880).^[1] Who his mother was is also unknown.^[1]

According to the Kokin Wakashū Mokuroku (古今和歌集目録), he was adopted by his brother-in-law Fujiwara no Kunitsune (藤原国経).^[1]

As a courtier, he held the Senior Fifth Rank, although the 14th century Chokusen Sakusha Burui (勅撰作者部類) attributes to him the Sixth Rank.^[1]

He was listed as one of the Late Classical Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses.^[1] Thirty-three of his poems were included in court anthologies: fourteen the Kokin Wakashū, eight in the Gosen Wakashū, two in the Shūi Wakashū, and nine more in later anthologies from the Shin Kokin Wakashū on.^[1]

The following poem was included as the very first entry in the Kokin Wakashū, indicating the high regard in which the compilers likely held his poetry.^[1]

Between one and three of his poems survive in the records of each of several uta-awase gatherings: the Ninna Ninomiya Uta-awase (仁和二宮歌合, 893 or earlier), the Kanpyō no Oontoki Kisai no Miya no Uta-awase (寛平御時后宮歌合, also written 寛平御時中宮歌合; 893 or earlier), the Teiji-in no Uta-awase (亭子院歌合, 913) and the Taira no Sadafun ga Ie no Uta-Awase (平定文家歌合, also read Taira no Sadafumi-ke Uta-Awase).^[1] Some of these overlap with the Motokata poems preserved in court anthologies.^[1]

In the middle ages there was apparently a private collection of his poems, the Motokata-kashū (元方家集),^[1] but only a four-leaf fragment is known to exist today.^[1]