was a famous

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

of the late Heian and early

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

Biography

Born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

warriors. After the start of the age of

Mappō The Three Ages of Buddhism, also known as the Three Ages of the Dharma (), are three divisions of time following Shakyamuni Buddha's death and passing into Nirvana in East Asian Buddhism. Three Ages The Three Ages of Buddhism are three divis ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

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 was the 74th Emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 鳥羽天皇 (74)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Toba's reign spanned the years from 1107 through 1123. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chr ...

, but in 1140 at age 22, for reasons now unknown, he quit worldly life to become a monk, taking the

religious name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for a religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholic Church, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should ...

. 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 Ise may refer to: Places * Ise, Mie, a city in Japan **Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie * Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria *Ise, Norway, a village in Norway *Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan * River Ise, a tributary of th ...

, and many other places, but he is more known for the many long, poetic journeys he took to Northern

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

that would later inspire Bashō in his '' Narrow Road to the Interior''. He was a good friend of

Fujiwara no Teika , better-known as Fujiwara no Teika"Sadaie" and "Teika" are both possible readings of ; "...there is the further problem, the rendition of the name in romanized form. Teika probably referred to himself as Sadaie, and his father probably called ...

. is Saigyō's personal poetry collection. Other collections that include poems by Saigyō are the ''

Shin Kokin Wakashū The , also known in abbreviated form as the or even conversationally as the Shin Kokin, is the eighth imperial anthology of waka poetry compiled by the Japanese court, beginning with the ''Kokin Wakashū'' circa 905 and ending with the ''Shinshok ...

'' and the ''

Shika Wakashū , abbreviated as ''Shikashū'', is an imperial anthology of Japanese waka, compiled c.1151–1154 CE at the behest of the Emperor Sutoku who ordered it in 1144. It was compiled by Fujiwara no Akisuke (1090–1155; a member of the Rokuj� ...

''. He died at Hirokawa Temple in

Kawachi Province was a province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province. It was also known as . Geography The area was radically different in the past, with Kawachi ...

(present-day

Osaka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture ...

) at age 72.

Style

In Saigyō's time, the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

'' was no longer a big influence on

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 ...

poetry, compared to the ''

Kokin Wakashū The , commonly abbreviated as , is an early anthology of the '' waka'' form of Japanese poetry, dating from the Heian period. An imperial anthology, it was conceived by Emperor Uda () and published by order of his son Emperor Daigo () in abo ...

''. Where the ''Kokin Wakashū'' was concerned with subjective experience, word play, flow, and elegant diction (neither colloquial nor pseudo-Chinese), the ''

'' (formed with poetry written by Saigyō and others writing in the same style) was less subjective, had fewer verbs and more nouns, was not as interested in word play, allowed for repetition, had breaks in the flow, was slightly more colloquial and more somber and melancholic. Due to the turbulent times, Saigyō focuses not just on ''

mono no aware , literally "the pathos of things", and also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese idiom for the awareness of , or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at th ...

'' (sorrow from change) but also on '' sabi'' (loneliness) and ''kanashi'' (sadness). Though he was a Buddhist monk, Saigyō was still very attached to the world and the beauty of nature.

Poetry examples

Many of his best-known poems express the tension he felt between renunciatory Buddhist ideals and his love of natural beauty. Most monks would have asked to die facing West, to be welcomed by the Buddha, but Saigyō finds the Buddha in the flowers: To be "heartless" was an ideal of Buddhist monkhood, meaning one had abandoned all desire and attachment: Saigyō travelled extensively, but one of his favorite places was

Mount Yoshino is a mountain located in the town of Yoshino in Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, Japan that is a major religious and literary site. It is renowned for its cherry blossoms and attracts many visitors every spring, when the trees are in blossom ...

, famous for its cherry blossoms:

Legacy

*Saigyō's journeys were an inspiration for the court lady

Lady Nijō (1258 – after 1307) was a Japanese noblewoman, poet and author. She was a concubine of Emperor Go-Fukakusa from 1271 to 1283, and later became a Buddhist nun. After years of travelling, around 1304–07 she wrote a memoir, ''Towazugatari'' ("An ...

, who records in her ''Towazugatari'' that she dreamed of writing a similar travel book after reading Saigyō's work at age 8. Nijō later followed in Saigyō's footsteps when she became a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

nun, visiting many of the places he recorded. * Bashō subsequently looked back to Saigyō for artistic inspiration. For example, quoting Saigyō's poem on the pine tree at Shiogoshi, he wrote "Should anyone dare to write another poem on this pine tree, it would be like trying to add a sixth finger to his hand".Nobuyuki Yuasa trans., ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' (Penguin 1983) p. 138

In popular culture

* 2016: ''

The Great Passage is a 2013 Japanese drama film directed by Yuya Ishii, starring Ryuhei Matsuda as a dictionary editor. It is based on the best-selling novel by Shion Miura. The film won several awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year, ...

'', anime, episode 7

Resources

*Meredith McKinney. ''Gazing at the Moon: Buddhist Poems of Solitude'', Shambhala Publications, 2021 . *Saigyô'', Poems of a Mountain Home'', translated by

Burton Watson Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature.Stirling 2006, pg. 92 Watson's translations received many awards, includi ...

, Columbia University Press, 1991 cloth pbk 33 pp.*Saigyô, ''Mirror for the Moon: A Selection of Poems by Saigyô (1118-1190)'', translated by William R. LaFleur, New Directions 1978. *William R. LaFleur. ''Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyō.'' Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003 pbk 77 ppThis is an expanded and matured reworking of the material in ''Mirror for the Moon''.

References

External links

Classical Japanese Database
- has some poems by Saigyō in translations and in the original Japanese

in Japanese
digital 西行庵

山家集の研究
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saigyo 1118 births 1190 deaths 12th-century Japanese poets Buddhist poets Hyakunin Isshu poets Heian period Buddhist clergy Kamakura period Buddhist clergy