A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own. Latin Proverb “You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”. In this essay the criteria are explored and compared to the behavior of a famous Buddhist monk, Master Ikkyu Sojun. Master Ikkyu was a Buddhist monk who sung the praises of sex in his poems,. Ikkyu (Ikkyu Sojun, 1394–1481) Ikkyu was a Zen monk of Muromachi Japan. He was a dramatic, enigmatic figure, who was not afraid to criticize the social and religious institutions of his day. He was an outstanding calligrapher and poet. While attacking the hypocrisy of the monastic orders, he frequented brothels and bars. Ikkyu Sojun Ikkyu was a Zen Buddhist monk and poet. Born in Kyoto in 1394, he is thought to have been an illegitimate child of the emperor at the time.
1394-1481 Ikkyū (self-named: 'Crazy Cloud') was an eccentric, iconoclastic Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet. He had a great impact on the infusion of Japanese art and literature with Zen attitudes and ideals.
portrait of Ikkyu by Bokusai
Best Poem Of Ikkyu Sojun It Is Nice To Get A Glimpse Of A Lady Bathing It is nice to get a glimpse of a lady bathing- You scrubbed your flower face and cleansed your lovely body While this old monk sat in the hot water, Feeling more blessed than even the emperor of China!
Ikkyū was born in 1394 in a small suburb of Kyoto. It is generally held that he was the son of Emperor Go-Komatsu and a low-ranking court noblewoman.[1] His mother was forced to flee to Saga, Japan, where Ikkyū was raised by servants. At the age of five, Ikkyu was separated from his mother and placed in a Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto called Ankoku-ji, as an acolyte.[1] The temple masters taught Chinese culture and language as part of the curriculum, a method termed Gozan Zen. He was given the name Shuken, and learned about Chinese poetry, art and literature.
When Ikkyū turned thirteen he entered Kennin-ji in Kyoto to study Zen under a well known priest by the name of Botetsu. Here Ikkyū began to write poetry frequently that was non-traditional in form. He was openly critical of Kennin-ji's leadership in his poetry, disheartened with the social stratum and lack of zazen practice he saw around him. In 1410, at the age of sixteen, Ikkyū left Kennin-ji and entered the temple Mibu, where an abbot named Seiso was in residence. He did not stay long, and soon found himself at Saikin-ji in the Lake Biwa region where he was the sole student of an abbot named Ken'o. It seemed Ikkyū had finally found a master that taught true Rinzai Zen as Ikkyū saw it. Ken'o was sporadic in his teaching style and was a strong believer in the supremacy of zazen. In 1414, when Ikkyū was 21, Keno died. Ikkyū performed funeral rites and fasted for seven days. In despair Ikkyu tried to commit suicide by drowning himself in Lake Biwa, but was talked out of it from the shore by a servant of his mother.
Ikkyū soon found a new teacher in a master named Kaso at Zenko-an, a branch temple of Daitoku-ji. Kaso was much like Ken'o in his style. For years he worked hard on assigned koans and made dolls for a local merchant in Kyoto. In 1418 Ikkyū was given Case 15 of the Mumonkan, Tozan's 60 Blows. One day a band of blind singers performed at the temple and Ikkyū penetrated his koan while engrossed in the music. In recognition of his understanding Kaso gave Shuken the Dharma name Ikkyu, which roughly means One Pause. In 1420 Ikkyū was meditating in a boat on Lake Biwa when the sound of a crow sparked satori. Kaso confirmed this great enlightenment and granted Ikkyu inka. Ikkyū came up against the jealousy of Yoso, a more senior student who eventually came to run the monastery. In Ikkyū's poems, Yoso appears as a character unhealthily obsessed with material goods, who sold Zen to increase the prosperity of the temples.
Ikkyu could sometimes be a troublemaker. Known to drink in excess, he would often upset Kaso with his remarks and actions to guests. In response, Kaso gave inka to Yoso and made him Dharma heir. Ikkyu quickly left the temple and lived many years as a vagabond. He was not alone, however, as he had a regular circle of notable artists and poets from that era. Around this time, he established a relationship with a blind singer Mori who became the love of his later life.
Ikkyu worked to live Zen outside of formal religious institutions. However, the Ōnin War had reduced Daitokuji to ashes, and Ikkyū was elected abbot late in life, a role he reluctantly took on. This firmly placed him in one of the most important Zen lineages. In 1481, Ikkyū died at the age of eighty-seven from acute ague.
Ikkyū is one of the most significant (and eccentric) figures in Zen history. To Japanese children, he is a folk hero, mischievous and always out-smarting his teachers and the shogun. In addition to passed down oral stories, this is due to the very popular animated TV series 'Ikkyū-san'. In Rinzai Zen tradition, he is both heretic and saint. Ikkyū was among the few Zen priests who argued that his enlightenment was deepened by consorting with pavilion girls. He entered brothels wearing his black robes, since for him sexual intercourse was a religious rite. At the same time he warned Zen against its own bureaucratic politicising. Usually he is referred to as one of the main influences on the Fuke sect of Rinzai zen, as he is one of the most famous flute player mendicants of the medieval times of Japan. The piece 'Murasaki Reibo' is attributed to him. He is credited as one of the great influences on the Japanese tea ceremony, and renowned as one of medieval Japan's greatest calligraphers and sumi-e artists.
Ikkyū wrote in Kanbun style classical Chinese, which was employed by many contemporary Japanese authors. His verse is immediate, poignant, insightful, and at times moving. For instance, the 'Calling My Hand Mori's Hand' poem.
My hand, how it resembles Mori's hand.
I believe the lady is the master of loveplay;
If I get ill, she can cure the jeweled stem.
And then they rejoice, the monks at my meeting.[2]
In popular culture
In the anime OVA Read or Die, a clone of Ikkyu appears as the leader of the villains, all of whom are also clones of famous historical figures.
In the second edition of the book On the Warrior's Path, author Daniele Bolelli refers to Ikkyu as his 'hero and philosophical role model'. He also explored Ikkyu's life story in a chapter of his 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Religion.
Ms office for mac download full version. The Japanese manga author Hisashi Sakaguchi wrote a life story of Ikkyu, あっかんべェ一休, 'Ikkyu', or 'Akkanbe Ikkyu', more or less according to the popular stories about him. The manga has been translated in four volumes into Spanish, French, German and Italian. In the manga Afterschool Charisma, a clone of Ikkyu appears among the main body of classmates in a special school filled with clones of famous historical figures. Comic author Tom Robbins identifies Ikkyu as his 'idol'.[3][4] In the anime/manga Eyeshield 21, Hosakawa Ikkyū (細川一休) is the name of the genius cornerback on the Shinryuji Naga American football team.
In the PSP game GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class Slapstick Wonderland, the children's story version of Ikkyu can be chosen as the picture book project theme/final story part of the game.
Kleenex Girl Wonder wrote the song Don't Cry, Ikkyu about Ikkyu.
Here’s this month’s poetry post from our friend Keiji Minato.
Ikkyu Sojun (一休宗純; 1394-1481) is one of the most famous monks in the history of Japan. Since his lifetime countless legends have been told about his weird acts and unmatchable wits. For contemporary Japanese he has become the most familiar figure as a Buddhist monk through the television anime series Ikkyu-san (一休さん; originally broadcast between 1975 and 1982, but re-broadcast many times after that). In this still popular anime, the protagonist Ikkyu-san is a boy who is kind and bright, helping people around him with his tonchi (the ability to solve difficult questions in original ways) and outfoxing Shogun-sama, who is always trying to trick him for fun.
The image of Ikkyu Sojun in the real history was difficult to grasp, but he might not be such a likable person as depicted in the anime. It is said that he urinated on a newly built Buddhist statue which he had been asked to consecrate and on another occasion took a nap using a statue as his pillow. (In the latter case a legend says that his friend Ren’nyo-shonin, another famous monk, came back to find Ikkyu sleeping and said, “Don’t use the tool for my trade as a pillow,” and they both had a good laugh over it.) His criticism of other monks often went beyond extreme or sounded just like blunt slandering, but in his last days he became head-monk of Daitoku-ji (大徳寺), one of the biggest Zen temples at that time and also today.
Kyounshu(狂雲集) is a collection of his Chinese-style poetry first published in 1642, well after his death (Kyo’un is one of the pseudonyms Ikkyu used, meaning a “crazy(狂) cloud(雲)”), and his image is multi-faceted even in this one book. He once stayed at Nyoian (如意庵) in Daitoku-ji to commemorate the thirteenth year of his master Kasou (華臾)’s death. Ten days after the ceremony he put the following poem on the wall of the building and went away:
如意庵退院寄養臾和尚
住庵十日意忙々
脚下紅糸線甚長
他日君来如問我
魚行酒律又淫坊
At leaving Nyoian, sending this to Youyu-osho,
Living in this hut for ten days made my mind fidgety
to my legs long red strings of the world get tangled
if some day you come visit me
go to a fish dealer, a tavern, or a brothel
Yosou (養臾) is his senior fellow, who succeeded their master Kasou and became head-monk of Diatoku-ji. It is clear that Ikkyu disliked him; he even said that Yosou’s claim as Kasou’s successor was false and severely criticized his rather successful managing of their sect as fawning upon the authorities.
自賛
八十窮僧大●苴 ●＝磊にくさかんむり
淫坊興半尚勇巴
半醒半酔花前酒
臨済徳山何作家
Self-praise
At eighty this poor monk is such a rogue
during playing at a brothel thinks of a boy’s love
half sober, half asleep, drunk under the blossoms
In Rinzai or Tokuzan who got real enlightenment?
* Rinzai and Tokuzan stand for the biggest Zen Buddhist sects at that time.
Ikkyu Sojun Biography
There must be some exaggerations, but Ikkyu was famous for his indulgence in drinking and sexual interests: he always visited brothels and even in his latter days he had a blind beautiful performer named Shinjisha (森待者) as his lover. Ikkyu also loved boys as the poem above says. (By the way, homosexuality was very common among monks at his time.)
Let me quote a poem on his lover Shinjisha (there are many!):
Ikkyu Sojun Art
謝森公深恩之願書
木凋葉落更回春
長緑生花旧約新
森也深恩若忘却
無量億劫畜生身
Prayer for thanking Shinjisha for her great favor
Trees weaken, leaves fall, and spring comes again
Lengthening green, breeding flowers, old promises renewed
Should I forget Shinjisha’s great favor by any chance
I would remain a dumb beast for endless time
In Buddhism the most significant is to leave your desires. However, many Zen and other sect masters point out that the desire to leave your desires is the biggest of all. I am not sure that Ikkyu’s indulgence in worldly interests led him to real enlightenment, but his poems certainly have the power to free our mind.
It is said that his dying word was “I don’t want to die (死にとうない).
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This text and translations by Keiji Minato.Keiji writes a guest blog for Deep Kyoto once a month introducing Kyoto’s poets and poetry.You can find former articles by Keiji Minato here. Quicken 2017 download for mac.
Of Related Interest:
Cities of Green Leaves 青葉の都市 – Ginko no Kukai
The Hojoki – Visions of a Torn World
Irish Haiku!
One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each
Introducing Keiji Minato
Songs and Stories of the Kojiki retold by Yoko Danno
Japan International Poetry Society