was the
pen-name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
of , a
Japanese author and
haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...
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 wri ...
. He is known for his
free verse
Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.
Defi ...
haiku — a style which does not conform to the formal rules of traditional haiku.
Early life
Santōka was born in a village located in
Yamaguchi prefecture, to a wealthy land-owning family. When he was eleven his mother committed suicide by throwing herself into the family well. Though the exact reason for her action is unknown, according to Santōka's diaries his mother had finally reached the point where she could no longer live with her husband's philandering. Following the incident, Santōka was raised by his grandmother.
In 1902, he entered
Waseda University
, mottoeng = Independence of scholarship
, established = 21 October 1882
, type = Private
, endowment =
, president = Aiji Tanaka
, city = Shinjuku
, state = Tokyo
, country = Japan
, students = 47,959
, undergrad = 39,382
, postgrad ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
as a student of literature. While there, he began drinking heavily, and in 1904, at the beginning of
the Russo-Japanese War, he dropped out of school. The documented reason was “nervous breakdown,” which some believe to be a euphemism for frequent and severe drunkenness. By that time his father Takejirō was in such dire financial straits that he could barely afford to pay his son's tuition.
In 1906, Taneda father and son sold off family land in order to open a ''
sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...
'' brewery. In 1909 his father arranged for Santōka to marry Sato Sakino, a girl from a neighboring village. In his diaries, Santōka confesses that the sight of his mother's corpse being raised from her watery grave had forever tarnished his relationship with women. In 1910 Sakino gave birth to a son, Ken.
Life as a Poet
In 1911, Santōka began publishing translations of
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
and
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
in the literary journal ''Seinen'' (青年, Youth) under the pen name Santōka (山頭火). The name is originally one of the list of ''
natchin'' (納音), i.e., labels given to a person's year of birth according to the Chinese
sexegenary cycle, which are used for divination. However, the ''natchin'' Santōka is unrelated to the actual year in which the poet was born.
The word Santōka can be understood in at least two different ways. The literal meaning is "Mountain-top Fire".
However, it can also mean "Cremation-ground Fire," since "mountain-top" is a metaphor for cremation grounds in Japanese. It has been speculated that this choice of name could be related to the traumatic experience of the suicide of Santōka's mother.
That same year, 1911, Santōka joined his area's local haiku group. At that time, his haiku mostly adhered to the traditional syllabic format, though some were hypersyllabic, for example:
:In a café we debate decadence a summer butterfly flits
:''Kafe ni dekadan o ronzu natsu no chō toberi''
In 1913, Santōka was accepted as a disciple by the leading haiku reformist
Ogiwara Seisensui
was the pen-name of , a Japanese haiku poet active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan.
Early life
Ogiwara Tōkichi was born in Shinmei, Shiba, Tokyo City (present-day Hamamatsu, Minato, Tokyo), the second son of a merchant who ow ...
. Seisensui (1884–1976) could be regarded as the originator of the free-form haiku movement, though fellow writers
Masaoka Shiki
, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡 升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...
and
Kawahigashi Hekigoto also deserve recognition. Writers following the early-twentieth century movement known as free-form or free-style haiku (''shinkeikō'' 新傾向, lit. 'new trend') composed haiku lacking both the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic rule and the requisite seasonal word (''
kigo
is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referred to in the sta ...
'').
Santōka began regularly contributing poetry to Seisensui's haiku magazine ''Sōun'' (層雲, Layered Clouds). By 1916 he became an editor.
That same year, however, was marked by the bankruptcy of his father's ''sake'' brewery after two years of spoiled stock. The family lost all that remained of their once great fortune. His father fled into hiding and Santōka moved his family to
Kumamoto
is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2.
had a population of 1,461,000, ...
City on the southern island of
Kyūshū, where plans to open a second-hand bookstore soon materialized into the opening of a picture frame shop. Two years later, plagued by debt, Santōka's younger brother Jirō committed suicide. Then Santōka's grandmother died. In 1919, at the age of thirty-seven, Santōka left his family in order to find a job in Tokyo. In 1920, following her parents’ wishes, Santōka divorced his wife.
His father died soon after.
As an exponent of free style haiku, Santōka is often ranked alongside
Ozaki Hōsai (1885–1926), a fellow student of Seisensui. They both suffered from the ill effects of their drinking habits and were similar in their reliance on Seisensui and other patrons of the arts for aid and support. The literary tone of their poems, however, differs.
Santōka proved no more reliable at working a steady job than he had at going to college, and though he did secure a permanent position as a librarian in 1920, by 1922 he was again unemployed due to another “nervous breakdown.” He stayed in Tokyo long enough to experience the
Great Kantō earthquake, after which he was apparently jailed as a suspect
Communist. Soon after being released, he returned to Kumamoto City where he helped Sakino keep shop.
In 1924, an extremely drunk Santōka jumped in front of an oncoming train in what may have been a suicide attempt.
The train managed to stop just inches from him, and he was brought by a newspaper reporter to the
Sōtō Zen
Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān ...
temple Hōon-ji, where the head priest Mochizuki Gian welcomed him to the
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
fraternity. The Zen life seemed to work for Santōka: by the next year at the age of forty-two he was ordained in the Sōtō sect.
In 1926, after a year spent as caretaker of Mitori Kannon-dō temple in Kumamoto, Santōka set out on the first of many walking trips. He was away for three years. Part of this time was spent completing the
eighty-eight temple pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
circuit on
Shikoku
is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...
Island. He visited the gravesite of his deceased friend Ozaki Hōsai.
In 1929 he returned briefly to Kumamoto to visit Sakino and publish some more haiku in ''Sōun''. He also began a publication of his own, ''Sambaku'' (三八九), named after his boardinghouse. Soon, however, he was back on the road.
During his trips, Santōka wore his priest's robe and a large bamboo hat known as a ''
kasa
Kasa may refer to
Places
*Kasa (kingdom), a former kingdom in Senegal
*Kasa, Sweden, a village in northern Sweden
*Kasa District, Kyoto, a district in Kyoto, Japan
*Kasa Khurd, a village in Maharashtra, India
*Kasa-Vubu (commune), a district in t ...
'' to keep off the sun. He had one bowl, which he used both for alms-getting and for eating. To survive, he went from house to house to beg. Begging (''
takuhatsu
is a Japanese term used to refer to the Buddhist monastic almsround.
Theravāda
In Theravāda Buddhism, ''takuhatsu'' is referred to by the Pāli term ''piṇḍacāra'' (). Monks or nuns on ''piṇḍacāra'' go around town on foot with thei ...
'') is an important part of practice for monks in Japan, but, considering that Santōka was not a member of a monastery while he journeyed, begging just for his own needs, he was often regarded with disdain and on a few occasions even questioned by the police. A day's earnings would go toward a room at a guesthouse, food, and sake. It is clear from his diaries that he had very mixed feelings about his lifestyle:
March 28, 1933. Even if it means nothing to eat, I don’t want to do any more of that hateful begging! People who have never done any begging seem to have difficulty understanding how I feel about this.
November 26, 1934. Loving sake, savoring sake, enjoying sake is not so bad. But drowning in sake, rioting in sake—that won’t do! Running around drinking in this messy way—utterly stupid!
November 4, 1939. The rain began coming down in earnest and the wind was blowing hard… It blew my hat off, and my glasses went flying too—what a mess! But a grade-school student passing by retrieved them for me—many, many thanks! Rain kept getting worse, wind blowing stronger all the time—nothing to do but stop for the night at Okutomo—but none of the inns would have me. Let it be! is all I say and, looking like a drowned rat, I walk on, Finally can't go on any longer and take shelter in the lee of a roadside warehouse. I wring out my clothes, eat lunch, stay there for two hours. Deluge!—no other word for it—violent wind lashing it around, sheets of rain streaming sideways like a loose blind. I felt as though I had been bashed flat by heaven—a rather splendid feeling in fact. With evening I was able to make it as far as Shishikui, but again nobody would take me in. Finally I got to Kannoura, where I found an inn that would give me lodging, much to my relief.
In 1932, Santōka settled down for a time at a cottage in
Yamaguchi prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 km2 (2,359 sq mi). Yamaguchi Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture t ...
. He named it “Gochūan” (其中庵) after a verse in the
Lotus Sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...
. While there, he published his first book of poems ''Hachi no ko'' (鉢の子,“Rice Bowl Child”). He lived on the contributions of friends and admirers, whatever he could grow in his garden, and money sent from his son Ken. In 1934 he set off again on a walking trip, but soon grew seriously ill and had to return home. He attempted suicide but lived. In 1936, he again began to walk, intent on following the trail of the famous haiku poet
Bashō (1644–1694) as described in ''
Oku no Hosomichi
''Oku no Hosomichi'' (, originally ), translated as ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'', is a major work of ''haibun'' by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese li ...
(The Narrow Road to the Interior)''.
He returned to Gōchuan after eight months.
In 1938, Gochūan became unfit for habitation, and after another walking trip, Santōka settled down at a small temple near
Matsuyama City. On October 11, 1940, Santōka died in his sleep. He had published seven collections of poems and numerous editions of ''Sambaku''. He was fifty-seven.
Poetry
The following poem is a typical example of Santōka's work:
What, even my straw hat has started leaking
笠も漏り出したか
''kasa mo moridashita ka''
This poem exhibits two major features of free verse haiku:
* It is a single utterance that cannot be subdivided into a 5-7-5 syllable structure, and
* It does not contain a season word.
The poem does, however, hint at a natural phenomenon — rain — by referring to the straw hat and to the fact that it is leaking.
---Another interpretation /
I'm traveling by myself wearing a straw hat.
It began to rain, and my face began to get wet.
There is no place to take shelter from the rain in an unpopular place.
But I keep walking.
---
Below are further examples of free haiku poems by Santōka:
* Excerpts from
Hiroaki Sato Hiroaki Sato may refer to:
*, Japanese fighter and wrestler with ring name Hikaru Sato
*, Japanese figure skater
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanese poet and translator
* Hiroaki Sato (animation director) (born 1959)
{{hndis, Sato, Hiroaki ...
’s translation of Santōka's ''Grass and Tree Cairn'':
:
:I go in I go in still blue mountains
:''Wakeitte mo wakeitte mo aoi yama''
:Fluttering drunk leaves scatter
:''Horohoro yōte ki no ha chiru''
* Excerpts from
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 ...
’s translation ''For All My Walking'':
:there
:where the fire was
:something blooming
:''yake-ato nani yara saite iru''
:feel of the needle
:when at last
:you get the thread through it
:''yatto ito ga tōtta hari no kanshoku''
Further reading
* Taneda Santōka. ''Santoka: Grass and Tree Cairn'', translated by
Hiroaki Sato Hiroaki Sato may refer to:
*, Japanese fighter and wrestler with ring name Hikaru Sato
*, Japanese figure skater
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanese poet and translator
* Hiroaki Sato (animation director) (born 1959)
{{hndis, Sato, Hiroaki ...
, Red Moon Press, 2002
* Taneda Santōka, ''The Santoka: versions by Scott Watson'', translated by Scott Watson, Bookgirl Press, 2005. C0098. 41pp. Over 100 haiku and two essays
* Taneda Santoka. ''Walking By My Self Again'', translated by Scott Watson, Bookgirl Press, 2011
8 pp. close to 200 haiku and translator's note
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Haiku of Santōka TanedaLarge archive of Santōka related texts a
*
* translated by Hisashi Miura and James Green
e-texts of Santōka's works at
Aozora bunko
Aozora Bunko (, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-o ...
Santokism Hebrew translations of Santoka Taneda poems (in Hebrew and Japanese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taneda, Santoka
1882 births
1940 deaths
20th-century Japanese poets
Buddhist poets
Japanese Buddhist clergy
People from Yamaguchi Prefecture
Soto Zen Buddhists
Zen Buddhist clergy
Japanese haiku poets
20th-century Buddhist monks