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The Priest And The Willow
is a Noh play based on the experiences of the 12th-century poet and travelling-monk Saigyō. Original kernel Saigyō was travelling to North Japan, when he sat in the shade of a willow-tree, later identified by Bashō as being close to the village of Ashino, and wrote a waka: " ‘Just a brief stop,’/ I said when stepping off the road/into a willow's shade/where a bubbling stream flows by,/as has time since my ‘brief stop’ began". Main theme A wandering priest, Yugyō Shonin, is given directions by an old man who recites Saigyō's poem before vanishing: the priest then realises it was the spirit of the willow tree. By reciting a prayer to Amida Buddha, he enables the spirit to attain Buddhahood, for which the willow spirit thanks him in a dance sequence. Later developments Buson wrote a haiku on rocks and willows underneath the Pilgrim's Willow Tree, alluding to the Noh play.L Zolbrod, ''Haiku Painting'' (Tokyo 1982) p. 12 See also * ''Eguchi'' (play) *'' Matsuyama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saigyō
was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Biography Born in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the age of Mappō, Buddhism was considered to be in decline and no longer as effective a means of salvation. These cultural shifts during his lifetime led to a sense of melancholy in his poetry. As a youth, he worked as a guard to retired Emperor Toba, but in 1140 at age 22, for reasons now unknown, he quit worldly life to become a monk, taking the religious name . He later took the pen name , meaning “Western Journey”, a reference to Amida Buddha and the Western paradise. He lived alone for long periods in his life in Saga, Mt. Koya, Mt. Yoshino, Ise, and many other places, but he is more known for the many long, poetic journeys he took to Northern Honshū that would later inspire Bashō in his '' Narrow Road to the Interior''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsuo Bashō
born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with '' Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton'' (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses." Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waka (poetry)
is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although ''waka'' in modern Japanese is written as , in the past it was also written as (see Wa, an old name for Japan), and a variant name is . Etymology The word ''waka'' has two different but related meanings: the original meaning was "poetry in Japanese" and encompassed several genres such as ''chōka'' and ''sedōka'' (discussed below); the later, more common definition refers to poetry in a 5-7-5-7-7 metre. Up to and during the compilation of the ''Man'yōshū'' in the eighth century, the word ''waka'' was a general term for poetry composed in Japanese, and included several genres such as , , and . However, by the time of the '' Kokinshūs compilation at the beginning of the tenth century, all of these forms except for the ''tanka'' and ''chōka'' had effectively gone extinct, and ''chōka'' had significantly diminished in prominence. As a result, the word ''waka'' became effectively synonymous with ''tanka'', and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ippen
was a Japanese Buddhist itinerant preacher (''hijiri'') who founded the branch of Pure Land Buddhism. Life Ippen was born at Hōgon-ji, a temple in Iyo Province (modern Ehime Prefecture) on the island of Shikoku. He was originally named . He first studied Tendai at Mount Hiei, Kyoto, and then Jōdo-shū at Dazaifu, Fukuoka on Kyushu. When his father died, the 25-year old Ippen returned to secular life and assumed family responsibilities. He got married and became head of the household. During a pilgrimage to the Kumano Shrines, the kami enshrined there revealed to Ippen that enlightenment was determined by Amitābha and that Ippen should devote himself to preaching the importance of reciting his name, a practice called nembutsu. Ippen and a band of followers then travelled throughout the country proselytizing with their ecstatic ''nembutsu'' dance, and won a wide following among common people. Other practices associated with the Ji-shū include scheduled sessions of chanting ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amida Buddha , 6th century medical writer
{{dab, geo ...
Amida can mean : Places and jurisdictions * Amida (Mesopotamia), now Diyarbakır, an ancient city in Asian Turkey; it is (nominal) seat of : ** The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Amida ** The Latin titular Metropolitan see of Amida of the Romans ** The Armenian Catholic titular see Amida of the Armenians ** The Syrian Catholic (Antiochian Rite) titular Metropolitan see Amida of the Syriacs * Mount Amida, mountain in Saeki-ku, Hiroshima, Japan Other * Amitābha Buddha, in Japanese * ''Amida'' (beetle), a beetle genus * ''Amida'', a ladder climbing puzzle video game See also * Amidah, the central prayer of Jewish worship * Amidakuji, a way of drawing lots * Aëtius of Amida Aëtius of Amida (; grc-gre, Ἀέτιος Ἀμιδηνός; Latin: ''Aëtius Amidenus''; fl. mid-5th century to mid-6th century) was a Byzantine Greek physician and medical writer, particularly distinguished by the extent of his erudition. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yosa Buson
was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun prose, and experimenting with a mixed Chinese-Japanese style of poetry. Biography Early life, training, and travels Buson was born in the village of Kema in Settsu Province (present-day Kema, Miyakojima Ward, Osaka). His original family name was Taniguchi. Buson scarcely discussed his childhood, but it is commonly thought that he was the illegitimate son of the village head and a migrant worker from Yoza. According to the Taniguchi family in Yosano, Kyoto, Buson was the son of a servant woman named Gen, who had come to work in Osaka and had a child with her master. A grave of Gen survives in Yosano. There is an oral tradition that the young Buson had been cared for at the Seyaku-ji temple in Yosano, and later, when Buson returned to Tang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eguchi (play)
''Eguchi'' (江口) is a Noh play of the third category, written by Zeami, around a fragment (the courtesan’s sermon) by Kan'ami. The play combines two legends, one related of the holy man Shōkū (concerning the identity of the courtesan of Mura with the bodhisattva Fugen) and the other related of the monk Saigyō: (the admonishment of the courtesan of Eguchi). Plot summary A travelling monk arrives by night at the port of Eguchi. Seeing a cairn, he enquires about its origin and is told that it commemorates the Lady of Eguchi, a former courtesan and poetess, who was subsequently considered to be a manifestation of a bodhisattva, specifically Fugen Bosatsu, Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue. During a rainstorm, the 12th-century monk Saigyō had asked for shelter at her house, but was refused entry. He reproached her with an impromptu poem, complaining that “you are stingy/even with the night I ask of you,/a place in your soon-left inn” Her devastating reply hinged on a Buddhis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsuyama Tengu
''Matsuyama tengu'' (松山天狗 ''Goblins of Matsuyama'') is a Noh play revolving around the ex-emperor Sutoku and his ghostly encounter with the poet Saigyō. Historical background The failure of the attempt by retired emperor Sutoku to seize power in the Hōgen rebellion led to his exile in Shikoku. His former associate Saigyō was shocked by the events: "A great calamity shook society, and things in the life of Retired Emperor Sutoku underwent inconceivable change". Saigyō thereafter kept in touch with his former emperor, and after his death made a pilgrimage to his place of exile, Matsuyama. There he wrote the tanka: "Let it be, my lord./ Surely this is nothing/ like the jewel-floored/ palaces of your past, but can/ anything alter what’s occurred?". Theme Saigyō's poem played a key role in the Noh play ‘Goblins of Matsuyama'. There, however, it formed part of the encounter between Saigyō and (the spirit of) Sutoku, figured in goblin form, and as a demonic influen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saigyōzakura
is a Noh play by Zeami about the famous poet Saigyō, regarding his well-known love for cherry blossoms. Background Saigyō was renowned for his love of the flowering cherry - what he himself once called "my lifelong habit of having my mind immersed in blossoms". As a recluse however, he sometimes found himself in conflict with the Japanese habit of collective blossom viewing: as he wrote in his Sankashū, "Leave me in solitude/O Cherry flowers./Draw not people,/for they come in crowds". Plot Wishing to be alone with his cherry-blossoms, Saigyō is annoyed by the arrival of a party of (potential) viewers; and, on admitting them, composes a waka blaming the cherry tree for their intrusive presence. That night he is visited by the spirit of the cherry-tree, who rebukes him by pointing out the separateness and independence of all living creatures from human concerns. The two then converse, before the play ends with an extensive dance celebrating cherry flowers, exceptional sak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sankashū
''Sankashū'' (山家集, , “Collection of a Mountain Home”) is a collection of poems by Saigyō, most probably made by the poet himself, and issued c.1180. Dating Because the collection contains no poems from the last decade of Saigyō's life, 1180-90, he is thought to have closed it c.1180, and circulated it thereafter. Divisions The collection contains 1552 poems, and falls into three parts. The first (1-572) is divided into four sections containing poems of the four seasons; the second (573-1041) into two sections - Love and Miscellaneous; and the third (1042-1152) again into two sections - Miscellaneous Songs and One Hundred Songs. Quality Where much court poetry of the time was convoluted, the ''Sankashū'' is known for its directness of utterance. His early translator, Hei-Hachuro Honda, valorised Saigyō's poems of solitude over those that were involved in more communal activities. Later critics, however, have paid more attention to how his poetry was rooted both i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
