(1632–1695) was a Japanese Buddhist monk, poet and sculptor during the early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. He was born in

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

(present-day

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

) and is famous for carving some 120,000 wooden statues of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

and other Buddhist icons, many of which were given in payment for lodging on his pilgrimages to temples throughout Japan.

Biography

Childhood

The most credible source has Enkū born in 1632 on the banks of the Kisogawa in central Japan in

(present-day

). His family was poor and, under the tightly controlled regime of the Tokugawa shōguns, there was little prospect of any kind of advancement. Social status, occupation, even religious affiliation, were rigidly prescribed. Travel was restricted. Tradition recounts that his mother was washed away and drowned in a river flood, probably when he was seven years old. Soon after this, Enkū left home and became a Buddhist monk. The temple Enkū entered belonged to the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

Jimonshu, one of the older branches of Buddhism in Japan. Tendai teaching accepts many ways to realise enlightenment, including the way of the artist – the way of making and distributing Buddha statues. Th
Jimonshu
or Jimon branch was particularly connected with the

yamabushi are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. They are generally part of the syncretic religion, which includes Tantric Buddhist, Shinto, and Japanese Taoist elements. Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or ho ...

– literally "those who sleep in the mountains."

Yamabushi practice

In common with many

, Enkū was a healer and a practitioner of kampo, herbal medicine. In fact, we still possess some of his personal notes on medicinal plants. As he travelled in remote regions, his skills as a doctor would have been eagerly received among the poorer people.

Carvings

During his travels, he vowed to carve some 120,000 wooden statues. No two were alike. Many of the statues were crudely carved from tree stumps or scrap wood with a few strokes of a hatchet. Some were given to comfort those who had lost family members, others to guide the dying on their journeys to the next life. Thousands of these wooden statues remain today all over Japan, especially in Hida and

Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...

regions. Enkū is probably now regarded as one of the most famous Japanese sculptors. What is less well known is that he was also a prolific poet.

Poetry

There are extant over 1,500 of Enku's Japanese poems in two collections along with a few more written on the back of statues. One collection of 100 poems is called, "Kesa Niji Hyaku Shu" (“One Hundred Poems Containing the Two Characters Kesa). The other which is much larger is called "Otoko Warashi Uta (“Male Child Songs”). Mostly he wrote

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

(also known as “tanka”), an ancient five-line verse form with the syllables running usually, 5-7-5-7-7. Themes include his mountain practice, responses to nature and the seasons, romantic pieces and expressions of joy and bliss (he nicknamed himself Kanki Shamon Enku, "Bliss-monk Enku"). In 2015, a book called "In Heaven's River: Poems and Carvings of Mountain-Monk Enku" was published by Zenways Press in the UK with Japanese and English translations of 100 of Enkū's poems collected together by Enkū’s thirtieth-generation successor, Enju-sensei, together with photos of many of his carvings.

External links

Enkū
Konan City
Enku Life to Live
Documentary on the life of Enku

the Tendai Jimonshu {{DEFAULTSORT:Enku 1632 births 1695 deaths Japanese Buddhist clergy Japanese sculptors People from Gifu Prefecture Edo period Buddhist clergy