RYOKAN
Zen Monk-Poet of Japan

Prepared for the Columbia College Programof Translations from the Oriental Classics

RYOKAN
Zen Monk-Poetof Japan

Translated by
BURTON WATSONNEW YORKCOLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESSThe Japan Foundation, through a special grant,
has assisted the Press in publishing this volume.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ryokan, 1758-1831.
Ryokan, Zen monk-poet of Japan.
Consists chiefly of translations of selected Japanese and Chinese poems, theformer with romanized Japanese text in parallel columns.
"Translations from the Oriental classics."

I. Watson, Burton, 1925— II. Title
PL797.6.A29 1977
895.6'i'3
77-11140
ISBN 0-231-04414-3
ISBN 0-231-04415-1 (pbk.)

PI

Columbia University Press
New York Guildford, Surrey
Copyright © 1977 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Americac 10 987654321
p 10 987654321\

mlrm^in,RKUfii(Philip Whalen)

Translations Trom the Oriental Classics

Editorial Board

Wm. Theodore de Bary, Chairman
C. T. Hsia

Donald Keene

Barbara Stoler Miller

Paul Varley

Burton Watson

Philip Yampolsky

CONTENTS
IT* IT~^ <T~» n~»

Introductionn~^ <1^11^11 viixiixii

t1

WAKA: Poems in Japanese
KANSHI: Poems in Chinese
Admonitory Words

115

Statement on Begging for Food

INTRODUCTIONa master calligrapher, a writer of unusual and highly per¬sonal poetry in Japanese and Chinese, an eccentric holed up in
a tiny mountain hut, a lanky, beak-nosed cleric begging forfood or playing crazy games with the village children—theseare some of the images summoned up by the name Ryokan,a monk of the Soto branch of the Zen sect who lived inJapan in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. His
works have long been loved and admired by his countrymen,
one of whom predicted that the time would come when theywould be appreciated in China and the West as well.1 The
present book is an attempt to fulfill part of that prophecy bypresenting English translations of a selection of Ryokan's
poems in Japanese and Chinese, along with a brief prose workin Chinese.
Ryokan was born in 1758 in the village of Izumozaki in
Echigo province, present-day Niigata, on the northwest coastof the main island of Japan. His father had been adopted into
the Yamamoto family of Izumozaki and held the posts heredi¬tary in the family, those of nanushi or village headman, andcustodian of the local Shinto shrine. He was also something ofa haiku poet and went by the literary name I'nan. Ryokan's
mother came from another branch of the Yamamoto family liv¬
ing in the nearby island of Sado.
1. See the remarks by the eminent poet and critic Saito Mokichi(1882-1953) quoted in Karaki Junzo, Ryokan, Nihon shijinsen #20 (Tokyo:
Chikuma shobo, 1971), pp. 229-30. Other outstanding men of modern Japa¬
nese letters who have expressed admiration for and indebtedness to
Ryokan's works include Masaoka Shiki, Natsume Soseki, Takamura Kotaro,
and Kawabata Yasunari.

■♦5 1 £*•

Ryokan, who as a boy bore the name Eizo, attended aprivate school in the neighborhood run by a Confucian
scholar, over a period of five or six years receiving a basic edu¬
cation in Chinese and Japanese. Because he was the eldest
son, he then began training to succeed his father as village
headman. In the summer of 1775, at the age of seventeen,
however, apparently without his parents' permission, he
abruptly entered a local temple of the Zen sect and began
religious training. Some accounts say he shaved his head andbecame a monk immediately, adopting the religious nameRyokan, others that he did not take this step until four years
later. Meanwhile his younger brother Yoshiyuki replaced him
as family heir.
Just what impelled Ryokan to take this dramatic step isuncertain. Numerous legends and anecdotes have accumulated
about his name, and these depict him as a sensitive, in¬trospective, and bookish boy who by temperament might be
expected to be drawn to the religious life. His family, whose
fortunes were clearly on the decline, had many Buddhist con¬nections, and a number of its members at one time or anotherentered the clergy. For Ryokan, an eldest son, to do so, andin such a precipitate manner, however, was surely unconven¬tional. Probably he found, in his period of apprenticeship asvillage headman, that he had no taste or aptitude for adminis¬
trative affairs—there is a tale of his having bungled as media¬
tor in a dispute between the local officials and the fishermen of
the village, mainly because of the unfortunate frankness withwhich he conveyed the contestants' opinions to one another.
Anecdote suggests other motives to explain his sudden deci¬sion to enter religious life, among them an unhappy marriage,
and shock at attending the beheading of a condemned crimi¬
nal.
•«§ 2

In 1779 the Zen master Kokusen, head of the Entsu-ji tem¬ple in Bitchu in present-day Okayama Prefecture, happened
to pass through Echigo and stopped at the temple where
Ryokan was living. Ryokan immediately determined to be¬come his disciple and followed him back to the Entsu-ji,
spending the next ten years or so in religious training under
Kokusen's guidance. Eventually he gained full enlightenmentand received inka, the sanction of his teacher to become a Zen
master in his own right. After Kokusen's death in 1791, he leftthe Entsu-ji and spent some five years wandering about thecountry, though exactly where he went or how he lived is un¬
certain.
In 1795 Ryokan's father visited Kyoto and, evidently out ofdisillusionment at the powerless situation of the imperial fam¬ily, drowned himself in the Katsura River, though some ac¬counts say the suicide was feigned and that in fact he with¬drew to the great Buddhist center at Mount Koya on the Kii
Peninsula. Ryokan somehow received word of the event andwent to Kyoto to attend memorial services for his father, after
which he returned to his native region, where he remained forthe rest of his life.
Ryokan stayed at a number of temples and lodgings in thearea, and around 1804 settled down in the Gogo-an or Five
Measures of Rice Retreat, a little one-room hut on the slopes ofMount Kugami that belonged to a temple at the top of themountain.2 He remained there for the following thirteen years.
When age made it difficult for him to hike up and down the
trail, he moved to the grounds of the Otogo Shinto shrine at
2. The name Gogo-an was not given to the hut by Ryokan but by amonk who had lived there previously and received a daily ration of five go,or measures of rice, from the temple. Ryokan, it should be noted, received
no such ration.

3

the foot of the mountain, and later to a renovated storehouseat the home of a friend in the village of Shimazaki. He died
there in 1831 at the age of seventy-three.
Unlikemost

distinguishedJapanese

Buddhistpriests,

Ryokan never headed a temple of his own. Instead, he chose
to live alone, simply, frugally, and independently, devoting
his time to meditation, literary pursuits, and takuhatsu, thebegging expeditions to nearby villages and towns by which hesupported himself. Because of these expeditions he became afamiliar figure in the neighborhood, and seems to have been
particularly popular among the children,with whom heromped and played in a markedly unsanctimonious manner.
Some of the games he played are described in his poems. In
addition to these, anecdote relates that he used to lie down
and pretend to be dead while the children gleefully buried
him in dry leaves.
He exchanged poems and visited back and forth with his
brother Yoshiyuki and other relatives and with a number ofliterary-minded friends in the region. Best known of such lit¬erary friendships was that which he struck up around 1826,
when he was sixty-eight, with a Zen Buddhist nun named
Teishin (1798-1872), forty years his junior. Teishin, attracted
to him both as a poet and as a man of religion, visited him
often at the renovated storehouse in Shimazaki where he wasliving at the time, and the two. exchanged numerous poems
giving expression to their deep though wholly platonic affec¬
tion for one another. These and other Japanese poems by
Ryokan were later collected by Teishin in a work entitledHachisu no tsuyu or Lotus Dew (preface dated 1835), which con¬stitutes an important source on his final years.
Ryokanhad

at leastone

religious

disciple,alaymannamed Miwa Saichi, who died in 1807. Ryokan was deeply
4grieved by his death and thereafter apparently made little orno effort to pass on to others his understanding of the pro¬founder principles of Zen. Thus he died without leaving any
Dharma heir or successor to his teachings. Far from pressing
his own brand of Buddhism upon others, he repeatedly
stressed the essential unity of all Buddhist teaching. And
when writing poems for friends who belonged to the Shinsect, the prevalent form of Buddhism in the region, he extolled
such practices as the recitation of the Namu Amida Butsu for¬mula and the faith in the Western Paradise of the Buddha
Amida, which the Shin sect preached. His religious name,Ryokan, means “Goodly Tolerance," and he evidently took it
seriously. A second religious name that he adopted, Taigu or“Great Fool," also appears to reflect his image of himself. In
his youth he was known among the villagers as a hiru-andon, aperson who is as pointless and ineffectual as “a lamp at mid¬day." By dubbing himself “Great Fool," he showed that hegave ready assent to their opinion.
The seacoast where Ryokan lived is noted for its heavysnows and he was often snowed in in winter, particularly
when he lived on Mount Kugami. During such periods hepassed the time by poring over works of Japanese and Chi¬nese poetry, particularly the poems of the T'ang dynasty Bud¬dhist recluse Han-shan, the Master of Cold Mountain. In Japa¬
nese literature his favorite was the Man'ydshu,

the greatanthology of ancient poetry compiled in the eighth century,
which he read assiduously and imitated in hi3 own works,
and from which he compiled a little selection of particular fa¬
vorites. When the weather permitted, however, he foraged
over the hills for firewood or edible greens, busied himself
with chores about his hut, or left the mountain to play withhis beloved children friends and mingle with the villagers. His•«§ 5poems and the accounts of him left by his contemporaries
make it clear that, though rather shy and awkward, he was aman of great warmth and compassion, by no means the kind
who entirely shuts himself off from society.
It is characteristic of Ryokan that he compiled no collectionof his poems, at least of those in Japanese, but was content
merely to scatter them about among his friends and acquaint¬
ances.3 When his fame as a poet and calligrapher grew in later
years, he was often pressed for samples of his work, andseems to have complied good-naturedly, writing out a versionof one of his earlier compositions if he could not come up withan original poem for the occasion. As a result, many of his
poems have come to exist in a number of slightly different ver¬sions. Teishin was the first to put together a collection of his
poems in Japanese, the work noted above, and this was fol¬
lowed in time by other collections. Fortunately for posterity,
Ryokan was so revered as a man and admired as a poet andcalligrapher that the persons to whom he gave his works were
careful to preserve them. By rummaging through the store¬
houses of families in the area, scholars have so far succeededin recovering some 1,400 poems in Japanese and over 450 in
Chinese, as well as letters and other writings, and it is possi¬
ble that further search will in time enlarge the corpus.
Ryokan's waka or poetry in Japanese employs three forms:
the tanka, a thirty-one-syllable poem arranged in five lines in a

5.7.5.7.7 pattern; the sedoka, a poem in six lines in 5-7-7-5-77 pattern; and the choka, a form of unlimited length that
employs alternating lines of five and seven syllables and ends
3. He evidently did compile a brief collection of his works in Chinese, theSodoshu or Grass Hall Collection, but it contains only a fraction of his
Chinese poems.

^6 5

**

with an extra seven-syllable line, often followed by one ormore envoys in tanka form. These are the three forms repre¬
sentedinthe Man'ydshu,

which

Ryokansohighlyad¬mired, and it is not surprising that he should have tried his
hand at all of them.
The tanka became the dominant poetic form in the centuries
following the compilation of the Man'ydshu,

but the se-doka and choka dropped almost entirely out of use, the lat¬ter probably because it is so difficult to handle effectively.
There was a great resurgence of interest in the Man'ydshu
and other classics of ancient Japanese literature in the eigh¬teenth century, which inspired sporadic efforts to revive thechokaform. Ryokan's sedoka

and choka,though less nu¬

merous than his tanka, represent interesting and at times
remarkably successful attempts to bring new life to these longneglected forms.
Ryokan's

Japanesetwelfth-century

poetrypriest-poetclearly constituted

his

shows

the

influence

Saigyo,but

thechief model.

of theMan'ydshu

The Man'ydshu,be¬cause of its antiquity and the peculiar graphic system in which
it is recorded, abounds in problems of reading and interpreta¬tion, many of which had not been solved in Ryokan's timeand indeed to some extent remain unsolved today. Because hestudied the work on his own rather than under the tutelage ofan expert, he no doubt read the text imperfectly and with dif¬ficulty.4 Nevertheless he believed that, even imperfectly un¬derstood, it constituted the surest guide in matters of Japanese
poetry. He was willing to admit the worth of the Kokinshu,
4. He appears to have relied mainly upon the Man'ydshu ryakuge, a pop¬
ular commentary completed by Tachibana Chikage in 1796 and printed in1812.

the next important anthology, compiled around 905, but heappears to have had little use for the numerous anthologies
produced thereafter.5
Ryokan often, particularly in his choka, imitated the ac¬tual language of the Man'ydshu, which means that he em¬
ployed a deliberately archaic style and diction. He also, likehis model, made frequent use of makura-kotoba, or "pillowwords," conventionalized epithets attached to certain words tolend sonority to the poem.6 But what he seems to have es¬teemed most in the anthology and tried hardest to capture in
his own work is its spirit of simplicity and openness, its free¬
dom from literary artifice and intellectualization. Thus, al¬though he often borrowed its diction, he employed such dic¬
tion,

as

the Man'ydshu

poets

themselves

had

done,

to

record the actual scenes and experiences of his own daily life.
The combination of archaic language and highly realistic andcontemporary content that results may appear peculiar—rather
as though a poet of Wordsworth's time and temperament had
written in the language of Spenser. But it is representative of aphenomenon recurrent in both Japanese and Chinese litera¬ture, the effort to achieve innovation through a return to thefinest works and ideals of the past. That the combination, odd
though it may be, succeeds brilliantly in literary terms is at¬
tested by the critical acclaim which Ryokan's poems have en¬
joyed over the years since their appearance and the fact that
his reputation continues to grow.
The Japanese at many periods in their history have been en5. See his remarks quoted in Togo Toyoharu, Ryokan kashu
Sogensha, 1963), p. 388.

(Osaka:6. Because the makura-kotoba are often obscure in meaning or close tomeaningless, they are a bane to the translator, who is never certain how or towhat degree he should attempt to bring them over in translation. I have inmany cases not tried to represent them in English.

8thusiastic writers of poetry and prose in Chinese as well as intheir native language. The Zen monks of the thirteenth, four¬teenth, and fifteenth centuries produced an important body ofworks in Chinese known as Gozan bungaku, the "Literature of
the Five Mountains," as the major Zen temples of Kamakura
and Kyoto were known. In the Edo period, which began in
1600, the government's encouragement of Confucianism led
many Japanese to take up the study of Chinese language andliterature, bringing about a revival of interest in the writing ofkanshi or poetry in Chinese. Ryokan lived just at the time
when an earlier infatuation with T'ang poetry was giving way
to a taste for the more homey and realistic works of the Sung,and when the kanshi form was being adapted to Japanese
tastes and themes and enjoying a popularity quite unknown in
the past. For these reasons, and because he was a follower ofthe Zen sect, which places great emphasis upon the doctrinal
importance of Chinese verse and the works of certain Chinese
poets such as Han-shan and Su Tung-p'o, it is not surprisingthat he should have written poetry in Chinese.
As in the case of his poetry in Japanese, Ryokan did notally himself with any contemporary school or teacher of kanshi,
but worked quite on his own, turning directly to the works hemost admired, the early classics of Chinese poetry and theT'ang masters, particularly Han-shan, for inspiration.
Han-shan, whose dates are unknown but who probably
lived in the late eighth and early ninth century, was a layman
follower of Zen Buddhism who retired to a place called Cold
Mountain in the T'ien-t'ai mountain range of Chekiang. The
poems attributed to him, some three hundred, are untitled,
generally quite short, and cast in simple, often colloquial lan¬
guage. Some are satires on the follies of the world or sermons
on Buddhist practice and belief, others descriptions of the<♦§ 9rugged mountain scenery of the poet's retreat and of the aus¬
tere but unfettered life he lived there.
Ryokan sometimes produced imitations of specific poemsin the Han-shan collection, particularly the satires. But more
often he adapted Han-shan's simplicity of language anddirectness of approach in depicting the experiences of his own
life. Like his poems in Japanese, his kanshi are thus mainly arecord of his year-round activities—the snowbound winternights in his hut, the begging expeditions to towns and villages, the games he played with the children, his journeys andvisits with friends—along with a certain number of works of a
specifically doctrinal nature. He rails less at the world thandoes Han-shan—when he rails, it is usually at his fellow
monks—and his physical and spiritual withdrawal from soci¬ety was far less drastic and unconditional. For this reason, andbecause we know much more about his life, he comes acrossin his poetry as a warmer and more approachable person thanHan-shan, though equally eccentric in his own way.
One other characteristic of Ryokan's kanshi makes themdistinctively his own. This is the fact that he often violates the
prosodicrequirementsof Chinese verse,

at

times

using

rhymes that are faulty or no rhymes at all, ignoring consider¬ations of tonal parallelism, and employing patterns of diction
and syntax that, though intelligible, are quite unconventional.
Japanese kanshi are never recited aloud in Chinese pronuncia¬
tion, but are transposed into Japanese in accordance with aset of conventions, and thus the rhymes and other formal fea¬tures of the poem become wholly obscured in recitation. Nev¬
ertheless, Japanese have generally felt that if one elects to writein Chinese forms, one should abide by the rules laid down forthem by the Chinese. Ryokan's failure to do so has obliged
critics to describe his kanshi euphemistically as "in a class by<♦§ 10 £*>themselves." Ryokan no doubt anticipated such a judgment
when he wrote the following verse:
Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems at all!
Only when you understand that my poems are not poems
can we begin to talk about poems.7
As this suggests, Ryokan went very much his own way,
not only in his kanshi but in his Japanese poetry as well, andindeed in his whole manner of life. Unlike most eminent
scholars, artists, and writers of the Edo period, he was alliedwith no particular school or line of filiation, and for that rea¬son I have not tried to discuss him in terms of the intellectualand literary currents of the time. He was by no means selftaught but undoubtedly had his teachers and others who in¬fluenced him in his spiritual and artistic development. In theend, however, his highly individual character and talent led
him in directions quite different from those of his contempo¬
raries. He belongs in a sense less to his own age than to theages that followed, which discovered his work, responded to itwith enthusiasm, and made it a part of the mainstream of Jap¬
anese literary tradition in a way it had not been at the time of
its appearance. Today he is recognized as one of the greatest
figures of late Edo period literature, a man who, as I havenoted, seems to increase in stature with the years. He is one ofthose rare writers who, perhaps because of his innovations
and unconventionality, appears to speak even more commandingly to posterity than he did to his own age.
My

selection

consistsoftranslationsof forty-threeof

Ryokan's poems in Chinese and eighty-three of those in Jap7. Togo Toyoharu, Ryokan shishu (Osaka: Sogensha, 1962), p. 134.

•*3 11anese; the latter include seventy-four tanka, eight choka, andone sedoka.8 The number prefixed to the translation indicatesthe number of the poem in two works by Togo Toyoharu,
Ryokan shishu (Osaka: Sogensha, 1962) for the poems in Chi¬nese, and Ryokan kashu (Osaka: Sogensha, 1963) for the poems inJapanese, though in the case of the latter I sometimes follow aslightly different version of the text. The originals of the Japa¬
nese poems are given in romanized form, since poetry in clas¬
sical Japanese is quite intelligible in such form; poetry in
Chinese, however, is not, hence no originals are included forthe poems in Chinese. My selection concludes with excerpts
from Ryokan's list of ninety "Admonitory Words," written
in Japanese, and a prose piece in Chinese, the Shojujiki-mon
or "Statement on Begging for Food," in which he discusses the
Buddhist practice of begging for alms from the populace.
A few of Ryokan's kanshi appear to date from his days atthe Entsu-ji, though most are from his later years. His Japa¬
nese poetry seems to date almost entirely from the period after
his return to Echigo. Some critics claim to discern a certain
stylistic development in his writing—an early austerity, fol¬
lowed by a growing mellowness and warmth. Since so few of
his poems can be dated accurately, however, such attempts todelineate stylistic growth seem to be tenuous at best. My se¬lections are grouped mainly by theme, with a number of theJapanese poems arranged in the form of a year-round cycle,
though they were undoubtedly written over a period of years.
A few poems that clearly belong to the close of his life have

8 Ryokan also wrote haiku, of which the following Zen-flavored example is par¬ticularly famous:r
Ura wo mise

Showing their faces

omote wo misetechiru momiji

showing their back sides
the autumn leaves fall

12 ^

been placed toward the end of the selection. As will be noted,
most of his poems are untitled.
In addition to the works by Togo Toyoharu cited above,
I have also consulted the sections dealing with Ryokan by
Yoshino Hideo and others in Sanetomo shu, Saigyd shu, Rydkan shu, Koten Nihon bungaku zenshu #21 (Tokyo: Chikuma shobo,1971); Karaki Junzo, Ryokan,

Nihon shijin-

sen #20 (Chikuma shobo, 1971); Watanabe Hideei, Ryokan
shishii(Tokyo:Mokujisha,1974),

and Ryokan

shukkekd(Niigata: Kokodo shoten, 1974), also by Watanabe. It may be
noted that the Ryokan section of the first item mentioned
above has recently been reprinted as a separate volume, Yo¬shino Hideo, Ryokan: uta to shogai,

Chikuma sosho #216

(Chikuma shobo, 1975).
A

selectionof Ryokan's

poetry in

Englishtranslation,

Ryokan the Great Fool by Kodama Misao and Yanagishima
Hikosaku, was published by the Kyoto Seika Junior College
Press, Kyoto, 1969. A few of Ryokan's Japanese poems arealso translated in Donald Keene, ed.. Anthology of Japanese Lit¬erature (New York: Grove Press, 1955); and Geoffrey Bownas
and Anthony Thwaite, trs.. The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse(Penguin Books, 1964). Some of my translations have appeared
earlier in my Japanese Literature in Chinese, Vol. 2 (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1976), Antioch Review, and Montemora.

13 £*>

v

WAKA: Poems in Japanese[84 ]
Kusa makura

Though travels

yogoto ni kawaru

take me toyadori ni mo

a different stopping place each nightmusubu voa onaji

the dream I dream is always

furusato no yumethat same one of home

[869]
Yugure ni

In twilight

Kugami no yama wo

crossing overkoekureba

Mount Kugami

takane ni shika noat the crest I heard

koe wo kiki keri

the cry of a deer<♦§

17 £*>

hSsl
Uzumibi ni

Though I lie hereashi sashikubete

legs snuggled

fuser edomo

close to the embers

koyoi no samusa

tonight's cold

bar a ni torinu

goes right through my stomach[173]

Yama kage noIn the mountain's shadow

kusa no ihori voa

my grass hut's

ito samushiso cold

shiba wo takitsutsu

I'll be up burning firewood
all night long

yo wo akashitemu<*§

18 £•>

[9091

Ashihiki no

On slopes

Kugami no yama noof Mount Kugami

fuyugomori

holed up for winter—hi ni hi ni yuki no

day after day the snow

furu nabe ni

goes on fallingyukiki no michi notill trails show no sign

ato mo tae

of a soul passing by

furusato hito no

and no word comes

oto mo nashi

from people at home:ukiyo wo koko ni

so I shut my gatekado sashite

on the drifting world

Hida no takumi ga

and here with this one thread

utsu nawa noof clear water from the crags.

tada hitosuji no

straight as the stringiwa shimizu
so wo inochi ni teplucked by the carpenters of Hida,
I keep myself alive

aratama no

through another year.

kotoshi no kyo moanother today

kurashitsuru ka mo

I go on living<+$

19 £*>

[1041]

Ashihiki no

Faint trickle ofiwama wo tsutau

mossy water fromkoke mizu noa crevice in the mountain rock:kasuka ni ware wa

the clear still way

sumiwataru ka mo

I pass through the world[20^1
Ima yori wa

From now ontsugite shirayuki

white snow I know will

tsumoru rashi

go on piling up—

michi fumiwakete

who'd come tramping through it
to call on me?

tare ka tou beki«•$ 20[277i
Miyamabi ni

Deep in the mountains

fuyugomori suru
oi no mi wo

an old man
holed up for winter—tare ka towamashi

who'd come to see me?

kimi naranaku ni

Who but you, friend!

[279]

Yomosugara

All through the nightkusa no ihori ni

in my grass hut

shiba taiteburning brushwood,katarishi koto wo

how we talked on and on—

itsu ka wasuremu

when will I forget it?

21

[S2l]
Kaze maze ni

Mingling with the windyuki iva furikinu

the snow comes falling;yuki maze ni

mingling with the snow

kaze wa fukikinu

the wind comes blowing;uzumibi ni

by banked coals

ashi sashinobete

I stretch my legs,

tsurezure toidle, idle,

kusa no ihori ni

in this grass hut

tojikomoria shut-in,uchikazoureba

and counting, findkisaragi moyume no gotoku nithat the second month too
like a dreamsugi ni kerashimo

has come and gone22

Hiking from a Dream of Dbshiyuki(the poet's younger brother)

434 J
Izuku yori

Where did you come from,yoru no yumeji wofollowing dream paths

tadori koshi

through the night to reach me,miyama wa imada

these deep mountains

yuki no fukaki ni

still heaped high with snow?

(Sent to Yoshiyuki)

433 J
lka ni shite

I wonder how

kimi imasuramu

you're making out—

kono goro no

spring thaw

yukige no kaze no

and the wind these days

hibi ni samuki ni

blowing so cold!

-S 23 $•>

(Sent in thanks to Yoshiyuki)[455]
Shikishima no

Land of Yamato,

Yamato no kuni voa

island-strewn.

inishie yu

from times past a land where

kotoage senu kuni

they do not lift up words;1

shikaredomo

neverthelessware wa kotoage su

I will lift up these words.

Sugishi natsu

Last summer, a gift

oto no tamaishi

from my little brother—tsukuri kawaa piece of tanned leather

iya tdjiroku

white and clean

tae no ho ni

as tapa cloth.

arinishi kawa ya

this leather

waga ie no

I look on

takara to omoi

as the treasure of my house—
I wrap it round me

yuku toki wa
oite motarashi,

neru toki wa
fusuma to nashite
tsuka no ma moagami wo sarazu
motarisedokushiki shirushi mowhen I venture abroad.

31
jmake it my coverlet

'

%£
c*

when I go to bed.
never a momentAparted from my side.

O

Since I've had it<h£it's shownichijiruku

no special wonder.

arazari kereba

yet now I begin

1. To "lift up words" means to make special mention of or to praise. The
opening passage imitates Man'ydshu XIII, nos. 3250 and 3253.

24

kono tabi iva

to consider

fukaku kogae

more carefully.

kotosara ni

this time

yoru no koromo no

spread it overue ni shite

my sleeping pallet.

soga ue ni

try lying down

waga hada tsukete

to restfushinureba

right on top of it—

yoru wa sugara ni
umai shite

and find I sleep soundly
all night long.

honori honori towarm and basky

mafuyuzuki

in dead-of-winter months

harubi ni mukau

snug as though

kokochi koso sure>

I were welcoming spring c

25 &+>

[169]

Kusa no iho ni

In my grass hut

nezamete kikeba

I wake to hearhisakata no

showers of hailarare tobashiru

rattling overkuretake no ue ni

the grove of bamboo[563]

Asa na tsumu

Picking morning greens

shizuga kadota noin skimpy rows

ta no aze ni

of my kitchen garden

chikiri naku nari

I hear a wagtail singing—haru ni zva narinu

spring's really here!

<*5 26

[569]
Muragimo no

My heart

kokoro tanoshimo

is happy

haru no hi ni

on a spring day

tori no muragari

when I see the birds

asobu wo mireba

flocking together, playing[19]
Kodomora yo
iza ide inamu
Iyahiko no
oka no sumire nohana nioi mi niChildren!
shall we be going now
to the hillofIyahikolto see how the violets are blooming?

27

[2]
Kasumi tatsu

Long spring days

nagaki haru hi wowhen mists rise—kodomora tohitting the handballtemari tsukitsutsu

along with the children

kono hi kurashitsu

I've passed this one too.

[25]

Michi no be no

Picking violets

sumire tsumitsutsu

by the roadsidehachi no ko wo

I've forgotten and left

wasurete zo koshi

my begging bowl—

sono hachi no ko wothat begging bowl of mine

28 £*>

[26]Hachi no ko wo

I've forgotten

waga wasururedomo

my begging bowl

toru hito wa nashi

but no one would steal it

toru hito wa nashi

no one would steal it—hachi no ko aware

how sad for my begging bowl

[621]

Hachi no ko ni

In my begging bowl

sumire tampopo

violets and dandelions

kokimazete

jumbled together—miyo no hotoke ni

I offer them to thetatematsuritena

Buddhas of the Three Worlds29

[646]

Kusa no iho ni

How pleasant—ashi sashinobete

in my grass hut

oyamada no

stretching out my legs

kawazu no koe wolistening to the soundkikakushi yoshi moof frogs in mountain paddies[626 ]Sanae torn

In paddies among the mountains

yamada no oda no

girls transplant

otomego ga

rice seedlings—

uchiaguru uta no

the sound of their singing

koe no harukesa

drifts up from far away

30 $•>

[410]

Kawazu naku

In fields

nobe no yamabuki

where frogs singtaoritsutsu

I pick kerria rosessake ni ukabete

float them on the wine—

tanoshiki wo tsume

have all the fun you can!

[711]

Waga yado no

On leaves of the plantainnokiba ni ueshi

growing by the eaves

bashoha ni

of my huttsuki wa utsurinu

moonlight shines,

yo wa fukenu rashi

the night by now far gone<♦§ 31

I6691

Natsu yama wo

As I cross the summer hills

waga koekureba

I see a cuckoo

hototogisu

dart through treetops

konure tachikuki

beating his wings

naki habuku miyu

and singing[672]

Mizutori no

On green hills

kamo no hairo no

the hue of

aoyama no

the water duck's wing,konure sarazute

a cuckoo lingers

naku hototogisu

singing in the treetops«•§ 32

[150]

Yugiri ni

The distant villageochi no satobe wa

lost in evening mist

uzumorenu

when I make my way

sugi tatsu yado ni

home to my lodge

kaerusa no michi

where cedars stand[177]

Satobe ni wa

Down in the village

fue ya tsuzumi no

the din ofoto su nariflute and drum,

miyama wa sawa ni

here deep in the mountainmatsu no oto shite

everywhere the sound of the pines33

[282 ]

Koyoi ai

Tonight we meet,

asu wa yamaji 100

tomorrow thehedatenaba

mountain path will part us,

hitori yasumamu

and I'll lie down alone

moto no ihori ni

in my same old hut[37]
Ii kou to

I camexvaga kite mireba

to beg rice—

hagi no hanaand find bush clover

migiri shimimi ni

bloomingsaki ni kerashimo

all over the eave stones•*§ 34

175^1
Waga machishi

The autumn I waited for

aki wa kinu rashi

it seems has come—kono yube

this evening

kusa mura goto ni

from every clump of grass,mushi no koe suru

insect cries[ll8]

Mizu ya kumamu

Water to draw

tatagi ya koramu

brushwood to cut

na ya tsumamu

greens to pick—asa no shigure no

all in moments when

furanu sono ma ni

morning showers let up■*5 35

[23]Aki no ame no

In a spell

harema ni idete

when autumn rains let up

kodomora to

I went with the children,

yamaji tadoreba

following a mountain trail,

mo no suso nurenu

got the bottom of my robe all wet[826]

Nani to naku

No reason,

ura kanashiki voa

yet it makes me sad—waga kado no
inaba soyogasu

by my door

hatsuaki no kazerustling through rice stalks

the first fall winds

36 £*»

[1531
Yuku aki no

The sadness

aware wo tare niof this passing autumn—

kataramashi

who to talk it out with?

akaza ko ni iretea basket of wild spinach picked,

kaeru yugure

heading home at twilight[305]

Tsukiyomi no

Wait for moonlighthikari wo machite

before you try

kaerimaseto go home—

yamaji wa kuri no

the mountain trail's

iga no oki ni

so thick with chestnut burs!

**§ 37

[74° ]
Aki mo yaya
yosamu ni narinu
wag a kado ni
tsuzuresase cho
mushi no koe suru

Autumn, and nights
have grown bit by bit colder—time to mend tatters!
say insect voices
by my door

[748]
Akikaze no
hi ni hi ni samuku
naru nabe ni
tomoshiku narinu
kirigirisu no koe

Autumn windday by dayblows colder,cries of the crickets
each time feebler than before1

1. Ryokan's poem, though very different in wording, recalls that of thetwelfth-century priest-poet Saigyo:
Kirigirisu
yosamu ni aki nonaru mama ni
yowaru ka koe notdzakari yuku

Crickets—as the cold of night
deepens into autumn
are you weakening? your voices
grow farther and farther away*•§ 38

[820 ]

Aki no nu noIn the autumn meadow

kusa mura goto ni

dew that clings

oku tsuyu wa

to each clump of grass—yomosugara naku

is it the tears of the insects

mushi no namida ka

that cried all night long?

[306]

Tsuyu wa okinu

Dew on it,

yamaji wa samushi

the mountain trail will be cold—tachizake wo

before you head home

oshite kaeraba

how aboutkedashi ikaga aramu

a last drink of sake?

[122]

Hito towaba

If anyone asks

Otogo no mori no

say I'm in the grove

ko no shita ni

of Otogo Shrine

ochiba hiroite

picking up fallen leaves

iru to kotaeyo

under the trees

39 $*•

Taking Leave ojTVtount "Kugami(Probably written in 1826, when Ryokan left his hut in the Otogo
Shrine at the foot of Mt. Kugami and moved to the village of Shimazaki.)

1[93

Ashihiki no

SlopesKugami no yama noof Mount Kugami—

yama kage noin the mountain's shademori no shitaya ni

a hut beneath the trees—

iku toshi ka

how many years

waga suminishi wo

it's been my home?

karakoromo

The time comestachite shi kureba

to take leave of it—natsugusa no

my thoughts wilt

omoi shinaete

like summer grasses.

yuzutsu no

I wander back and forthka yuki kaku yuki

like the evening star—sono iho notill that hut of mine

ikakuru madeis hidden from sight.

sono mori notill that grove of trees

miezu naru madecan no longer be seen.

tamahoko no

at each bendmichi no kuma gotoof the long road.

kuma mo ochizu

at every turning.

kaerimi zo suru

I turn to look backsono yama no be woin the direction of that mountain•«§ 4044 ]Tarachine no

Memories of my mother:haha ga katami tomorning and evening

asa yu ni

I look

Sado no shimabe wo

far off at thoseuchimitsuru ka moisland shores of Sado1

45 ]Inishie ni

The only things

kawaranu mono wa

unchanged from the past:

Arisomi to

the sea of Ariso

mukai ni miyuru

and in sight beyond it

Sado no shima nari

Sado Islandx. An island in sight off the coast of Echigo; Ryokan's mother was born
there.

41 tV

White J-lair'[1129]

Yoi yoi ni

Though frosts come down

shimo wa okedomo

night after night,

yoshie yashi

what does it matter?

asahi ni tokenu

they melt in the morning sun.

toshi no ha ni

Though the snow falls

yuki wa furedomoeach passing year.

yoshie yashi

what does it matter?

haruhi ni kienu

with spring days it thaws.

shikasuga ni

Yet once let them settle

hito no kashira ni

on a man's head.

furitsumeba

fall and pile up.

tsumi koso masare

go on piling up—

aratama nothen the new year

toshi wa furedomo

may come and go.

kiyu to iwanaku ni

but never you'll see them fade away**§ 42

(Written on looking at little birds in a cage)[1074]

Ori ori wa

Now and thenmiyama no negura

you must long for your old nest

koinu beshi

in the deep mountains—

ware mo mukashi no

I too haveomoyuraku ni

memories of the past

On the Death of Saichi(See p. 106)[1139]

Kono sato no

In this village

yukiki no hito wa

coming and goingamata aredo

there're so many people—

kimi shi masaneba

but when you're not among themsabishikari keri

it's lonely•+k 43 $•*(Written when he visited the house of a friend but found it deserted,with only a lone plum tree blooming in the garden)[1064 ]
Ume no hana

Plum flowers,

oi ga kokoro wo

comfortnagusameyo

an old man's heart!

mukashi no tomo wa

My friend of past times

ima aranaku ni

isn't here anymore[1062]
Sono kami wa

Plum flowers

sake ni uketsuru

that once weume no hanafloated on the wine—tsuchi ni ochi keri

now unheeded

itazura ni shite

fallen to the ground•+$44 £*>

(Two poems on a vase—1)[492]

Inishie ni

Once owned,

ari kemu hito nothey say, by

moteri cho

men of long ago,omiutsuwa wo

this lovely vase—ware wa mochitari

and now it's mine!

(Two poems on a vase—a)[486]
Ima yori wa

From now on notchiri wo mo sueji

a single speck of dust—

asa na yu na

morning and night

ware mihayasamu

I'll clean and care for you—itaku na wabi so

don't feel lonely!

45

The Rabbit in the 'Moon(The poem is a retelling of one of the Jataka stories, tales of the Bud¬dha in his earlier incarnations when he performed various acts ofself-sacrifice. Ryokan follows the version of the tale found inchapter five of the Konjaku monogatari, a collection of stories in Japa¬
nese, many Buddhist in nature, compiled around 1100. This version
relates the Jataka tale to the old Chinese legend of a rabbit who in¬habits the moon. There are numerous versions of the poem withslight textual variations; I follow the text given in Yoshino Hideo's
collection, pp. 3x9-22.)

lsonokami
furinishi miyo ni

It took place in a world
long long ago

ari to iu

they say:mashi to osagi toa monkey, a rabbit.
and a fox

kitsuni to ga
tomo wo musubite

struck up a friendship.

ashita ni wa

mornings

nu yama ni asobi

frolicking field and hill.

yube ni wa

evenings

hayashi ni kaeri
kaku shitsutsu

coming home to the forest.
living thus

toshi no henureba

while the years went by.

hisakata nowhen Indra,

Ame no Mikado nosovereign of the skies.

kikimashite

hearing of this,sore ga makoto wo

curious to knowshiramu to te

if it was true.

okina to narite

turned himself into an old man.
tottering along.

soga moto ni•«§ 46

yoroboi yukite

made his way to where they wemdsuraku“You three,"namutachi tagui wo

he said.

koto ni shite“are of separate species.

onaji kokoro ni

yet I'm told play together

asobu chowith a single heart.

makoto kikishi ga

If what I've heard

goto araba

is true.

okina ga ue wopray save an old man

sukue to te

who's hungry!"tsue wo nagete

then he set his staff aside.

ikoi shi ni

sat down to rest.

yasuki koto to te

Simple enough, they said.

yaya arite

and presently

mashi wa ushiro no

the monkey appeared

hayashi yorifrom the grove behindko no mi wo hiroite

bearing nuts

kitaritari

he'd gathered there.

kitsuni wa mae noand the fox returned

ogawa yorifrom the rivulet in front.

io wo kuwaete

clamped in his jaws

kitaritari

a fish he'd caught.

osagi wa atari ni
tobitobedo

But the rabbit.
though he hopped and hopped

nani mo mono sede

everywhere

arikereba

couldn't find anything at all.

osagi wa kokoro

while the others

koto nari tocursed him because

nonoshirikereba

his heart was not like theirs.

hakanashi ya

Miserable me!

osagi hakarite

he thought
and then he said.

mdsuraku^ 47 ^

mashi wa shiba wo“Monkey, go cut me

karite koyo

firewood!

kitsuni wa kore wo

Fox, build me

yakite tube

a fire with it!"iu ga gotoku ni

and when they'd done

nashikereba

what he asked,

honoo no uchi ni

he flung himself

mi wo nagete

into the midst of the flames,shiranu okina ni

made himself an offering

ataekerifor an unknown old man.

okina wa kore wo

When the old man

miru yori mosaw thiskokoro mo shinu nihisakata no

his heart withered.

ame wo aogite

cried aloud,uchinakite

then sank to the ground,tsuchi ni taurite

and in a while,yaya arite
mune uchitataki

beating his breast,
said

mdsuraku

to the others,

namutachi mitari no“Each ofHe looked up to the sky,

tomodachi wa

you three friends

izure otoru tohas done his best,nakeredomo

but what the rabbit didosagi zo koto ni

touches me most!"

yasashi to te

Then he made the rabbit

moto no sugata ni

whole again

mi wo nashite

and gathering the dead bodykara wo kakaete

up in his arms,

hisakata no

took it andtsuki no miya ni zo

laid it to rest

horikeruin the palace of the moon.
•*§ 48 ^ima no yo made mo

From that time till now

kataritsugi

the story's been told,

tsuki no usagi tothis taleiu koto waof how the rabbit

kore ga yoshi ni tecame to beari keru toin the moon,

kiku ware sae moand even I

shirotae nowhen I hear it

koromo no sode wa

find the tears

torite nurenu

soaking the sleeve of my robe**5 49[1031]

Sumizome no

If these sleeves

zvaga koromode noof my black robe

yuta naraba

were only wider

ukiyo no tami wo

I'd shelter all the people

owamashi mono wo

in this up-and-down world[94l]
Mi wo sutete

When there're

yo wo sukuu hito mo
aru mono wo

those who give their lives

kusa no ihori ni

to hide in a grass hut

hima motomu to wa

because I want a little leisun

trying to save others,50[539]
Awayuki no

The Three Thousand Worlds1

naka ni tachitaru

that step forthmichidchi

with the light snow,

mata sono naka ni

and the light snow that falls

awayuki zo furu

in those Three Thousand Worlds(Conch horns were blown by the farmers as a warning of danger.)

Ochikata yu

Again and again

shikiri ni kai nofrom far off

oto su nari

the conches sound—koyoi no ame ni

in tonight's rainseki kuenamu ka2

will the dikes give way?

1. The universe.
. Text in Yoshino Hideo's collection, p. 108; the poem is not included in2

the Togo Toyoharu edition.

<*§ 51

(On receiving a gift of seven pomegranates)[476]
Kakite tabe

Splitting them, eatingtsumi saite tabe

picking them apart, eating

warite tabesate sono nochi wa

breaking into them, eating—after that neverkuchi mo hanatazu

letting them out of my mouth[460]
Chimubaso ni

Dulse and winesake ni ivasabi ni

and wasabi—

tamaioaru wa

with such gifts
my springharu wa sabishiku
araseji to nari

can never be lonely!

52[104.0 ]Yo no naka ni

It's not thatmajiranu to ni iva

I never mix

aranedomowith men of the world—

hitori asobi z0

but really I'd rather

ware wa masareru

amuse myself alone[603]
Fukamigusa

Woody peonies

ima wo sakari to

now just at thesaki ni keri

best of their bloom—

taoru mo oshishi

too beautiful to picktaoranu mo oshi

too beautiful not to pick

-5 53

[*374]
Nomi shirami

Fleas, lice

ne ni naku aki no

any autumn bug thatmushi naraba

wants to sing—waga futokoro wa

the breast of my robe

Musashino no harais Musashino moor!1[411]
Omiki woOn three cups

mitsuki itsutsuki

five cups oftabe einu

this fine wine I'm drunk—

eite no nochi wa

and once drunk

matade tsugikeru

I can pour for myself

i. Ryokan is famous for taking the lice out of the breast of his robe, sun¬ning them on a piece of paper on the veranda, and then carefully replacing themin his robe.

54

(Probably written at a dinner where he was served a vegetarian meal
while the other guests ate wild fowl)[l37l]
Gan kamo wa

The wild geese and ducks

ware wo misutete

have flown off

sari ni keri

and left me—

tofu ni hane no

I'm glad my bean curdnaki z0 ureshiki

doesn't have wings!

[1359]

Ware dani mo

When even I haven't had

mada kuitaranu

enough to eat,shiragayu noat the bottom of my bowl

soko ni mo miyuru

of rice gruelkageboshi kanamy shadow hogging in!

^> 55 £*>

[338]

Tori to moite

Don't take me for a birdna uchi tamai soand pelt me

misonou no

if I comekaidd no mi wo

to eat the cherry-apples

hami ni kitsureba

growing in your garden!

[328]

Aki kaze ni

In the fall breezenabiku yamaji nobobbing by the mountain path,susuki no hoplumes of pampas grass—mitsutsu ki ni keri

watching them. I've made my way

kimi ga iebe ni

here to your house'♦S 56 t?*5[39Kaze wa kiyoshi

The breeze is fresh,tsuki wa sayakeshi

the moonlight bright—

iza tomo ni

let's dance together

odori akasamu

the whole night through,oi no nagori ni

a last memory for my old age(Written to Teishin, 1830)[244]

Azusa yumi

Now that catalpa-bowed1

haru ni narinaba

spring is here,kusa no iho woleave your grass hut

toku dete kimase

hurry to me—aitaki mono wo

I long to see you!

1. makura-kotoba or pillow word for “spring."«•$ 57

(Addressed to Teishin)[316]

Mata mo koyo

Come again

shiba no ihori wo

if you don't mind

itowazuba

my hut of sticks,

susuki obana no

through dew-wet tails of pampas gra

tsuyu wo wake wakepushing pushing your way alongb351
Koto shi areba

When you're busy

koto ari to iite

you send word you can't comekimi wa kozu

because you're busy

koto shi naki toki wa

and when you're not busy

otozure mo nashi

you send no word at all«•§ 58 $•*(Addressed to Teishin)[292]

Itsu itsu to

When? when? I said

machi ni shi hito wa

But the one I waited forkitari keri

has come at last.

ima wa aimite

Seeing her now,nani ka omowamu

what more could I ask?

59

(Written in 1830)[1336]
Misonou ni

These I grew in my garden:

ueshi akihagi

autumn bush clover.

hatasusu ki

eulalia grass.

sumire tampopo

violets, dandelions.

nebu no hanaa silk tree in bloom,

basho asagao

plantain, morning glory.

fujibakamaboneset.

shioni tsuyukusa

aster, spiderwort.

wasuregusa

day lilies—

asa na yu na nieach morning, each evening

kokoro shite

taking pains tomizu wo sosogite

pour on water,

hioi shite

rigging a sun shade.

sodateshinureba
tsune yori monursing them along,koto ni aware to

and others said too—hito mo ii

they were

ware mo moishi wolovelier

toki koso arethan ever before.

satsuki no tsuki noin the fifth month.

hatsuka mariat twilightitsuka no kure noof the twenty-fifth day.

okaze nothat huge windkuruite fukeba

came howling like a fury.

aragane notill they lay batteredtsuchi ni nukafushi

over the iron ground,hisakata no

tangled by torrents

and just when I thought—•*§

60 c?*>

ame ni midarite

of rain from the sky,momo chiji nitill they'd been tumbled

momare ni kereba

a hundred thousand ways,

atarashi toand all I could say was,omou mono kara

how pitiful!

kaze no nasu

But because I know

waza ni shi areba

it's the work of the windsemu sube mo nashi

I know there's nothing I can do[1337]
Waga yado ni

At my houseuete sodateshithese hundred plants

momokusa wa

I planted and raised—kaze no kokoro ni

only to give them up

makasu nari keri

to the will of the wind^ 61

[1079]Sono kami wo

Those old days—I wonder,

omoeba yume ka

did I dream themutsutsu ka moor were they real?

yoru wa shigure no

In the night I listen

ame wo kikitsutsu

to the autumn rain

62 £•>Jhe Pasania PJut Pree of lyahiko[1311]
lyahiko no
kami no mimae noshii no ki wa
ikuyo henuramu
kamiyo yorikakushi aru rashi
hotsue ni wa
teru hi wo kakushi
nakatsue wa
kumo wo saegiri
shimotsue wa
iraka ni kakari
hisakata no
shimo wa okedomo
tokoshie ni
kaze wa fukedomo
tokoshie ni
kami no miyo yori
kakute koso
ari ni kerashimo
lyahiko no
kami no mimae nitateru shii no ki

Before the shrineof lyahiko,
the pasania nut tree—
how many years it's known,from ages of the gods
always like this?
Upper branches
that shield the shining sun,
middle branches
barring the clouds,
lower branches
that rest on roof tiles;
though frosts
fall from the sky,
it lives forever,though winds blow,
still it lives on,
from holy agesof the gods
ever like this,the pasania nut
that stands
before lyahiko Shrine**3 63 tV

[1322]

Yukusa kusa

Each time I go

miredomo akanu

each time I come

Iivamuro nolooking at it but never tiring,tanaka ni tateru

the lone pine that stands

hitotsu matsu no ki

in the field of Iwamuro(For the parents of a dead child)[1200]
Kainadete

You fondled himoite hitashite

piggybacked him

chi fufumete

reared him, fed him the breast—

kyd iva kareno ni

and today bear him away

okuru nari keri

to the withered fields•+$ 64

(For the children who died in a smallpox epidemic; a sedoka)[ll82 ]

Haru sareba

When spring comes,

kigi no kozue ni

from every tree tip

hana wa sakedomo

the flowers will unfold,momijiba no

but those fallen leaves

suginishi kora wa

of autumn, the children,

kaerazari keri

will never come again(Written for Ryokan's friend Abe Sadayoshi, whose eldest daughter
had died. The poet speaks in the voice of the grieving father.)[1206 ]

Shirayuki wa

White snow, heap up

chie ni furi shikea thousand layers deep—

waga kado ni

the lost childsuginishi kora ga

will never comekuru to iwanaku ni

to my gate again^ 65 ^

(Written for a dying person)[ 1243 1
Gokuraku ni

My father and motherwaga chichi hah a 10 ain Paradise—owasuramu

think of it,

kyo hizamoto etoday I go

iku to omoeba

to sit by their knees!

[1236]

Ryokan ni

If they ask

jisei aru ka to

if Ryokan has

hito towaba

some last words for the world,

Namu Amida Butsu

tell them he says:

to iu to kotaeyo

Namu Amida Butsu 1

1. The ritual invocation of the Buddha Amida's name which, according to
the teachings of the Jodo and Shin sects, assures that the believer will be
reborn in the Western Paradise of Amida.

•+$ 66 $•>(Written shortly before his death when he was suffering from severe
diarrhea)[183]

Koto ni idete

Putting it in words

ieba yasukeshi

it sounds

kudaribara

so simple

makoto sono mi wa

but with these runny bowels

iya taegatashi

my body is hard to bear!

•*§ 67 $**>KANSHI: Poems in ChineseOn OOiqb Spirits[2]

Robe too short, jacket too long,in high spirits, full of fight—that's how I get by.
On the road little boys suddenly spy me,
dap hands, all together give out with a temari song.1
1. A temari is a cloth ball wound with colored thread and used for various
children's games, to which songs are sung.

*•5 71

Jemari1

16]
In my sleeve the colored ball worth a thousand in gold:
I dare say no one's as good at temari as me!
And if you ask what it's all about—on e—t w o—three—four—fi v e—six—s eveni. The ball described in the preceding poem and the games, particularly
counting games, played with it.

^ 72 £•»

Qrass fight'

bl
Again with the boys I fought a hundred grasses,
fought going, fought coming—what a brave fight we had!
Sun setting, lonely now, everyone gone home—
one round bright moon, whiter than autumn.
1. The “grass fight" is mentioned as early as T'ang times in China as a pas¬time played by girls on the fifth day of the fifth month, a genteel competitionof grasses or flowers which was imported to Japan and pursued under thename kusa-awase. Ryokan's grass fight, however, is a much more strenuous
affair in which the contestant selects tough weed stalks, loops them aroundthe stalks of his opponent, and conducts a tug-of-war.

<•5 73l9l
Green spring, start of the second month,colors of things turning fresh and new.
At this time I take my begging bowl,
in high spirits tramp the streets of town.
Little boys suddenly spot me,
delightedly come crowding around,descend on me at the temple gate,
dragging on my arms, making steps slow.
I set my bowl on top of a white stone,
hang my alms bag on a green tree limb;
here we fight a hundred grasses,
here we hit the temari ball—I'll hit, you do the singing!
Now I'll sing, your turn to hit!
We hit it going, hit it coming,
never knowing how the hours fly.
Passers-by turn, look at me and laugh,"What makes you act like this?"
I duck my head, don't answer them—
I could speak but what's the use?
You want to know what's in my heart?
From the beginning, just this! just this!

74

[l]
Finished begging at the village crossroads,
now I stroll through the Hachiman Shrine
when children spot me, call to each other,"That crazy monk from last year's back again!"

75

[15]

Breath of spring bit by bit milder;rattling the rings on my staff, I head for the east town.
Green green, willows in the gardens;
bobbing bobbing, duckweed on the pond.
Alms bowl smelling sweet with rice from a thousand houses;
heart indifferent to ten-thousand-chariot glory.1
Following in tracks of old time Buddhas,
begging for food, I go my way.
1. The glory and wealth of a ruler with an army of ten thousand chariots; an
old Chinese expression.

'♦S 76[i6lTime: first day of the eighth month;1with begging bowl I enter the city streets.
A thousand gates unbolted in the dawn;ten thousand homes where cooking smoke slants up.
Last night's rain washed the road clean;autumn wind shakes the metal rings of my staff.
Taking my time, I go begging for foodhow wide, how boundless this Dharma world!
x. Under the lunar calendar New Year came in early February and autumn
comprised the seventh, eighth, and ninth lunar months.

77

Empty 'Bering Bowl

[21]

Blue sky, cold wild-geese crying;
empty hills, tree leaves whirling.
Sunset, road through a hazy village:
going home alone, carrying an empty bowl.

78

Summer, 'Kansei kasshi1[246]

After Grain in Ear, dark and overcast,
black clouds lowering, never pulling apart:swift lightning flickered all night,
rough winds blew the whole day through.
Flood waters crept over steps and stairs,
pouring rains drowned field and paddy.
In the village, no sound of children singing;carts and horses set out but never came home.
The river waters raged and tumbled—
wherever you looked, banks wiped out.
Every commoner, young or old,pressed into service, more weary with each day.
Ridges that bound the fields—where have they gone?
Hard to tell if the levees can be saved.
The young wife throws down her shuttle, comes running;
the old farmer leans on his spade and sighs.
What offerings of paper and cloth not proffered,
what god or spirit not implored?
But high Heaven is a mystery, hard to fathom—enough to make you doubt if the Creator exists.
Who will haul the four conveyances.
1. There was no year with the cyclical designation kasshi in the Kansei era
and commentators suggest that the title should read Bunka kasshi, which
would correspond to 1804. Grain in Ear in the first line is a division of thesolar year, ending around June 20, when the rainy season is at its height.

««§ 79ensure the people a place of rest?2
I overheard the villagers talking:"This year's grain crops did so well!
everyone working twice as hard as ever,cold weather and warm coming right on time.
We plowed deep, weeded briskly,
off at dawn, at evening looking back—And now in one morning the land laid waste—
what can we do but weep!"
2. Four types of vehicles used when the legendary Emperor Yii brought theflood waters of ancient China under control.

80 tV

f142]
Done begging in a rundown village,
I make my way home past green boulders.
Late sun hides behind western peaks;
pale moonlight shines on the stream before me.
I wash my feet, climb up on a rock,light incense, sit in meditation.
After all, I wear a monk's robe—
how could I spend the years doing nothing?

•-*k

81 £*■

^37]
In the still night by the vacant window,
wrapped in monk's robe I sit in meditation,
navel and nostrils lined up straight,ears paired to the slope of shoulders.1
Window whitens—the moon comes up;
rain's stopped, but drops go on dripping.
Wonderful—the mood of this moment—
distant, vast, known to me only!
i. This is the posture one is instructed to assume when practicing zazen or
Zen style meditation. See Dogen's instructions quoted in Heinrich Dumoulin, A History of Zen Buddhism (McGraw-Hill paperback, 1965), p. 161.

**3 82

(The “you” of the poem is probably Ryokan's close friend Abe
Sadayoshi (1779-1831), with whom he often exchanged poems.
Ryokan is doing zazen in imitation of Bodhidharma, the founder ofthe Zen sect.)[32l]
You've dropped the sutra scroll, head bowed in sleep;
I'm perched on my cushion, copying the old Founder.
Frog voices near and far sound incessantly;
the lamp glows and fades within the coarse-plaited blinds.

83

rVisited by Thieves[60]

My zazen platform, my cushion—they made off with both!
Thieves break into my grass hut, but who dares stop them?
All night I sit alone by the dark window,
soft rain pattering on the bamboo grove.

<*§ 84 tVh7 ]Dark of winter, eleventh month,rain and snow slushing down;
a thousand hills all one color,ten thousand paths where almost no one goes.
Past wanderings all turned to dreams;
grass gate, its leaves latched tight;
through the night I burn chips of wood,
quietly reading poems by men of long ago.

85

hy]
Shouldering firewood I climb down the green peak,green peak where trails are never level.
Sometimes I rest under a tall pine,
listen quietly to the voice of spring birds.

86 £*>

[163]As a boy I left my father, ran off to other lands,
tried hard to become a tiger—didn't even make it to cat!
If you ask what kind of man I am now,
just the same old Eizo I've always been.1
x. Eizo was Ryokan's name before he became a monk.

87

A Jlecjuest for Jlice[50]
Bleak, bare, my three-span room;a wreck, this creaky old body,now especially in dark winter months—
I'd have trouble telling you all my ills.
Sipping gruel, I get through the cold night,
counting the days, waiting for sunny spring.
But if I don't ask for a measure of rice,
how can I last out the season?
Pondering, I came up with no workable plan,so I write this poem, send it to you, old friend.

<+§

88

[no]
All my life too lazy to try to get ahead,
I leave everything to the truth of Heaven.
In my sack three measures of rice,by the stove one bundle of sticks—
why ask who's got satori, who hasn't?
What would I know about that dust, fame and gain?
Rainy nights here in my thatched hut
I stick out my two legs any old way I please.

<•§ 89[n6]Rags and tatters, rags and tatters,
rags and tatters—that's my life.
Food—somehow I pick it up along the road;my house—I let the weeds grow all around.
Watching the moon, I spend the whole night mumbling poems;
lost in blossoms, I never come home.
Since I left the temple that trained me,
this is the kind of lazy old horse I've become.

•*§ 90[59 ]
On peaks before, peaks behind, snow glinting white;
my grass gate shut tight, west of the rocky stream.
Through the long night in the fire pit I burn sticks of wood,pulling on my beard, remembering times when I was young.

<•5 91Long Winter CNightl6g]
I remember when I was young
reading alone in the empty hall,again and again refilling the lamp with oil,never minding then how long the winter night was.

'♦S 92 £*>(73 iI lie alone in my grass hut,
all day not seeing a soul.
Alms bag—how long now it's hung on the wall,
walking stick left wholly to the dust.
Dreams wing away to mountain meadows;
waking, my spirit roams the city—
along the roadside, the little boys—
as always, they'll be waiting for me to come93 £*>

(351Done with a long day's begging,I head home, close the wicker door,
in the stove burn branches with the leaves still on them,quietly reading Cold Mountain poems.
West wind blasts the night rain,
gust on gust drenching the thatch.
Now and then I stick out my legs, lie down—
what's there to think about, what's the worry?

94 £*>

[83 ]First month of summer. Grain in Ear season1—
with a metal-ringed staff, alone I come and go.
Old farmers suddenly spy me,
drag me over to join their fun.
Woven rushes serve for our seats,paulownia leaves take the place of plates.
A couple of rounds of wine in the fieldand drunk, I doze off, head pillowed on the bank.
l. One of the divisions of the solar year, around June 6-20.

95 £**

Dialogue in a Dream[143]

Begging food, I went to the city,on the road met a wise old man.
He asked me, "Master, what are you doing
living there among those white-clouded peaks?"
I asked him, "Sir, what are you doing
growing old in the middle of this red city dust?"
We were about to answer, but neither had spoken
when fifth-watch bells shattered my dream.

•*§

96 £*>

[65 J
I have a walking stick—
don't know how many generations it's been handed down—
the bark peeled off long ago,
nothing left but a sturdy core.
In past years it tested the depth of a stream,
how many times clanged over steep rocky trails!
Now it leans against the east wall,
neglected, while the flowing years go by.

<+§

97

h68]
In a flash of lightning, sixty years;
world's glory and decay—clouds that come and go.
Deep night rains about to gouge out the foot of the cliff;
wick of the lamp glowing, guttering by the old window.

'■*§

98

(In his later years, Ryokan moved from his mountain hut to the
Otogo Shrine at the southern foot of Mount Kugami, living there forthe following ten years.)[165]

As a boy I studied literature,
but was too lazy to become a Confucian;in my young days I worked at Zen,but got no Dharma worth handing down.
Now I've built a grass hut,act as custodian of a Shinto shrine,
half a shrine man,half a monk.

<«§ 99 cV

(Apparently written when Ryokan happened to pass by his old
mountain hut, the Gogo-an, some years after leaving it, and wasshocked by its state of disrepair. It eventually fell to ruin, though it
has since been rebuilt.)[99]
This is the place I lived so long!
Alone with my lone staff I happened by—wall fallen down, fox and rabbit runs;
well gone dry beside the tall bamboo.
Cobwebs in the window where I used to read,
dust coating my zazen platform,
fall weeds burying the steps in their tangle,
a cold cricket singing right in my face—
I pace back and forth, can't bear to leave,
desolate, staring into the evening sun.

'♦3 100 tV[259}

How admirable—the fine gentleman,in spare moments so often trying his hand at poetry!
His old-style verse is modeled on Han and Wei works;
for modem style, he makes the T'ang his teacher;with what elegance shapes his compositions,adding touches that are striking and new.
But since he never writes of things in the heart,
however many he may turn out, what's the point?

101 iV[i85]
Buddha's something made up in the mind;
the Way—it doesn't exist either.
I'm telling you—believe what I say—
don't go off in some wild direction!
Point your cart shafts north and try to get to the tropics—
when do you think you'll ever arrive?

102

(The "twelve divisions" are the twelve sections into which the Bud¬dhist scriptures are divided. The poem is an attack on the kind of sec¬tarianism common in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism that seeks to
exalt the verity and worth of one sutra over that of all the others.)[i8y]
Buddha preached the twelve divisions,each division full of purest truth.
East wind—rain comes in the night,
making all the forests fresh and new.
No sutra that does not save the living,no branch in the forest not visited by spring.
Learn to understand the meaning in them,
don't try to decide which is "valid," which is not!

103 $•-

% Inscribe on a Picture oj a Skull J Painted

h45]
All things bom of causes end when causes run out;
but causes, what are they born of?
That very first cause—where did it come from?
At this point words fail me, workings of my mind go dead.
I took these words to the old woman in the house to the east;
the old woman in the house to the east was not pleased.
I questioned the old man in the house to the west;
the old man in the house to the west puckered his brow andwalked away.
I tried writing the question on a biscuit, fed it to the dogs,
but even the dogs refused to bite.
Concluding that these must be unlucky words, a mere jumbleof a query,
I rolled life and death into a pill, kneading them together,and gave it to the skull in the meadowside.
Suddenly the skull came leaping up,
began to sing and dance for me,a long song, ballad of the Three Ages,a wonderful dance, postures of the Three Worlds.1
Three worlds, three ages, three times danced over—the moon sets on Ch'ang-an and its midnight bells."2
1. The three ages of past, present, and future; the three worlds of desire
form, and formlessness.
2. The last line is taken verbatim from a poem entitled "For the Monk Santsang on His Return to the Western Regions," by the ninth century Chinesepoet Li Tung, translated in my Chinese Lyricism (New York: Columbia Univer¬sity Press, 1971), p. 120.

104

Drinking IVine with Dbshiyuki
and Being 'Very Jdappy(Yoshiyuki was Ryokan's brother, four years his junior.)[272]

Older and younger brother meet—both with white eyebrows drooping down.
And what delight in this time of peace,
day after day getting drunk as fools!

105When AJewsof Saichi's Death Arrived(Miwa Saichi was a koji or layman who studied Zen with Ryokan
until his death in the fifth month of 1807. To Ryokan, who ap¬
parently had few other Zen students, his death was a great blow, andhe referred to it often in his poems.)[283]
Ah—my koji!
studied Zen with me twenty years.
You were the one who understood—
things I couldn't pass on to others.

•*§

106

J Dreamt of Saicbi and Woke witha Reeling of Uneasiness[291]

After twenty some years, one meeting with you,gentle breeze, hazy moon, east of the country bridge:
we walked on and on, hand in hand, talking,till we reached the Hachiman Shrine in your village of Yoita.

-5 107

Paying Respects at the Qraveof PVly Peacher Shiyo(Omori Shiyo (1738-1791), the Confucian scholar whose school in
Jizodo by the Seba River Ryokan attended as a boy. Shiyoclosed the school in 1777' shortly after Ryokan began religious
training.)b73]
Old grave on the side of a deserted hillwhere year after year the sad grasses grow;no one attending to sprinkle and sweep it,
only a reed-cutter at times passing by.
I remember long ago, hair in boy's braids,
going to school by the Seba River.
Then one morning we flew off in different directions;after that no word from one another.
Now I've come home, and you've departedhow can I face your spirit?
I pour a dipper of water over the stone,a small gesture of respect for my teacher.
The bright sun suddenly sinks in the west;
in mountain fields, only the sound of pines.
Wandering back and forth, I can't bear to leave,tears continually wetting my robe.

108 £*>

[369]My one aim, to be a wandering monk,
how could I have lingered any longer?
Lugging a water jug, I took leave of my old teacher,in high spirits set off for other parts,
mornings climbing to the top of the lone peak,evenings crossing the dark sea's flow.
And while one word fails to match the Truth,
I vow all my life never to rest!

•+§

109

[3521
I remember when I was at Entsu-ji,
always sorry my way was such a solitary one.
Hauling firewood, I thought of Mr. P'ang;treadling the pounder, I recalled old Lu.1
At nisshitsu I never dared to be last,at morning sanzen always got there first.2
Since I left my place at the temple,
thirty long years have passed.
Mountains and seas lie between me and that land,no one to bring me any news.
I think of the debt I owe my teacher, end in tears—
let them flow, flow to the river.
1. Mr. P'ang is the layman or koji P'ang, a devout Zen believer of T'ang
times whose sayings have been preserved. Old Lu is Hui-neng, the famous
Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Zen in the eighth century, who for a time worked at
the temple pounding rice in a treadle-operated mortar.
2. Nisshitsu refers to the private interview between the Zen master and thestudent; sanzen here probably indicates the morning meditation period orsome other morning ceremony.

110

Bothered by Something[77]
I shaved my head, became a monk,plowed through the weeds, spent years looking for the Way.
Yet now wherever I go they hand me paper and brush,
and all they say is "Write us a waka!" "Write us a Chinese
poem!"-3 111

[30]The plaintain before my window,tall, lanky, brushing the clouds, cool:
writing ivaka, composing kanshi,
all day long I sit by its side.

112

Seventh JVlontb, Sixteenth Day[31]
Where to escape this steamy heat?
I like best the Izuruta Shrine.1
Miiin-miiin, the shrill of locusts fills my ears;
cool cool breezes come out of the wood.
1. A little local shrine at the village of Shimazaki, where Ryokan lived
shortly before his death.

-5 113

ADMONITORY WORDS
excerpts from Ryokan's list of ninety Kaigo or "Admonitory

Words," which seems to have been addressed mainly to him¬self. Several versions of the list exist; I follow that recorded intheHachisunotsuyu,(Tokyo: Shingensha,

OshimaKasoku,Ryokanzenshu1958), pp. 526-28. The original is inJapanese.

Beware of:talking a great deal
talking too fast
volunteering information when not asked
giving gratuitous advice
talking up your own accomplishments
breaking in before others have finished speaking
trying to explain to others something you don't understandyourself
starting on a new subject before you've finished with thelast oneinsisting on getting in the last word
making glib promises
repeating yourself, as old people will dotalking with your hands
speaking in an affectedly offhand mannerreporting in detail on affairs that have nothing to do withanything
reporting on every single thing you see or hearmaking a point of using Chinese words and expressions

115

learning Kyoto speech and using it as though you'd known
it all your life
speaking Edo dialect like a country hicktalk that smacks of the pedant
talk that smacks of the aesthetetalk that smacks of satori
talk that smacks of the tea master

According to the preface to the Sodoshu,clared there were three things he disliked:
poet's poetry
calligrapher's calligraphy
chef's cooking<+5

116 iV

Ryokande¬STATEMENT ON BEGGINGFOR FOOD
the receiving of gifts of food is the lifeblood of the Buddhist

Order. For this reason we have our rituals for unwrapping
gruel bowls and our rules for begging food. Vimalakirti ob¬tained "pure rice" from the Buddha of Fragrance Accumulated
and offered it to the multitude that had gathered from allaround; Chunda sought permission to present Shakyamuni
with a final meal and received Shakyamuni's sanction.1
Long

ago,

when

PrinceSiddhartha[Shakyamuni]

waspursuing religious practices in the snowy mountains, he at
firstservedunder theascetic Alara Kalama andothers,day after day eating no more than one hemp seed and one
grain of wheat, observing the most difficult and painful aus¬
terities, but they were of no help to him in finding the Way.
Then, realizing that they were not the correct method, heabandoned them and attained Enlightenment.
The observances of one Buddha shall be the observances fora thousand Buddhas. Thus we should understand that the
Buddhas of the Three Worlds accepted gifts of food and ati. According to ch. 10 of the Vimalakirti Sutra, Vimalakirti through his
magical powers obtained "pure rice," a kind of gruel made of rice cooked inmilk and butter, from the Buddha mentioned above, and fed it to a vast multi¬
tude, yet the supply never ran out. Chunda, a humble blacksmith, presented ameal to Shakyamuni and his disciples that turned out to be Shakyamuni'slast, since he grew ill and died as a consequence; however, he commended
Chunda for the spirit in which the meal was offered. The text of the "State¬ment on Begging for Food" is found in Togo Toyoharu, Ryokan shishu,
pp. 421-28.

117

tained Enlightenment, and that the patriarchs and teachers
down through the ages accepted food and transmitted thelamp of the Law.
Therefore it is said, “It is permissible to receive food that isproperly offered, but it is not permissible to receive food thatis impure." And again, “To eat large quantities of food willcause one to be drowsy and to sleep a great deal and will giverise to indolence and sloth; but to eat too little will leave one
with no strength to practice the Way."The Sutra of the Buddha's Dying Instructions says,2 “Youmonks, you should look upon the receiving of food and drink
as you would upon the taking of medicine, not increasing or
decreasing the quantity because some of it tastes good to you
and some tastes bad." And again, “Eat at fixed times and seethat you live in cleanliness and purity. Work to free yourselvesfrom delusion, and do not let the desire for much food destroy
the heart of goodness within you. Be with yourselves like awise man who gauges the amount of labor his ox can bear andnever exhausts its strength by driving it beyond the limit."
The Vimalaklrti Sutra

says, “Once Kashyapa, moved bypity and compassion, purposely went to a poor village to beg
for food.3 But Vimalakirti berated him, saying, 'Begging forfood must be done in an equal-minded manner! Because weare equal-minded in matters of food, so we can be equalminded in matters of the Dharma.' “4
2. The Fo-ch'ui pan-nieh-p'an liieh-shuo chiao-chieh ching (Busshi hatsunehanryakusetsu kyokai kyd), a brief work of doubtful origin describing the Bud¬dha's final hours and his dying instructions to his disciples; it is especiallyhonored in the Zen sect.
3. Because by begging from the poor, he could give them an opportunity togain religious merit.
4. Ryokan summarizes the description of the incident from ch. 3 of theVimalakirti Sutra.

-5 118 *•>The Rules for Zazen says, "Not too cold in winter, not too
hot in summer; if the room is too bright, lower the blinds; if it
is too dark, slide open the window panels. Be moderate infood and drink and go to bed at a fixed hour."5The "Formula on the Five Remembrances" says,6 "First, I
consider the effort that went into producing it. Second, I con¬sider how it came into my hands. Third, I consider whether I
have been diligent or neglectful in my own practice of virtue,
and accept it accordingly. Fourth, I accept this food so that I
may heal the decay of the body. Fifth, I accept it so that I may
attain the Way."All these writings attest to the importance of accepting giftsof food. If one accepts no food, then the body will not functionsmoothly. When the body does not function smoothly, themind will not function smoothly; and when the mind does not
function smoothly, it becomes difficult to practice the Way. Is
this not why the Buddha is called a Jogojobu or one who"Controls Men Smoothly"?7
The men of ancient times said, "The mind of man is peril¬ous, the mind of the Way is obscure. Only through concentra¬tion and oneness can you sincerely hold fast to the mean."8
To let the fingernails grow long and the hair become like atangle of weeds, to go all year without bathing, now exposing
the body to the burning sun, now refusing to eat the five
5. There are various formulations of the rules for zazen or Zen meditation.
The quotation here resembles the rules laid down by Dogen (1200-53), wh°has come to be regarded as the founder of the Soto branch of the Zen sectin Japan. Those who have done zazen in Japanese temples in winter may have
had occasion to wonder just what the Zen definition of "too cold" may be.
6. A text recited by Zen practitioners before partaking of a meal.
7. One of the Jugo or Ten Epithets of the Buddha.
8. A celebrated passage from the "Pronouncement of the Great Yu," a sec¬tion of the Confucian Book of Documents.

119

grains—these are the ways t>f the six teachers of heretical doc¬trines.9 They are not the ways of the Buddha. And practices
that resemble these, even though they may not be the same,
one should recognize as the ways of heretical doctrines, un¬worthy to be trusted and followed.
In general, to remove oneself from the doting involved withkin and family, to sit upright in a grass hut, to circle about be¬neath the trees, to be a friend to the voice of the brook and thehue of the hills10—these are the practices adopted by the an¬
cient sages and the model for ages to come.
I once heard an old man say that, because many of themonks of former ages used to hide themselves away in the
deep mountains and remote valleys, they were far removed
from human settlements and constantly encountered difficul¬
ties in begging for food. At times they had to gather mountainfruits or pick wild greens in order to provide themselves withenough to eat.
Nowadays we have our Mokujiki practitioners who, though
they reside in the communities where others live, make apoint of refusing to eat the five grains.11 What kind of practiceis this? It resembles Buddhist ways but is not really Buddhist;it resembles the austerities of the heretical teachers but is notreally heterodox. Would we be justified in saying that such
9. Six religious and philosophical leaders who lived at the time of Shakyamuni and advocated severe ascetic practices.
10. An allusion to the famous lines in Su Tung-p'o's so-called enlighten¬
ment verse ("Presented to the Chief Abbot of Tung-lin Temple"):The voice of the brook is the eloquent tongue of Buddha;
the hue of the hills—is it not his pure form?
11. Mokujiki or "tree-eater," as the name indicates, means one who lives
exclusively on the fruits and nuts of trees. There were several well-known Jap¬
anese monks who followed this practice, the most famous being the Shingonmonk Mokujiki Ogo (1536-1608).

120

men are parading their eccentricity and leading the populace
astray? If not, then we must suppose them to be quite madand intoxicated with the Buddhist Law. The people of the time
pay them great reverence, looking on them as arhats possessedof all the six supernatural powers, and they themselves, be¬cause of the persistent reverence paid them by others, come tobelieve that their own way is vastly superior. What a spec¬
tacle, what a spectacle! One blind man leading a multitude of
the blind—soon they will tumble into a great pit!
When the men of old sacrificed themselves for the sake of
the Dharma, they rid themselves of all ego, never greedy forfame or gain, seeking the Way alone. Therefore the heavenly
beings bestowed alms upon them and the dragon spirits
looked up to them. But the men of today claim they are carry¬ing out practices difficult to practice, enduring deprivationsdifficult to endure, and yet all they are doing is needlessly
wearying the body given them at birth by their father andmother. What a waste, what a waste! It is of course not right totry to cling to life and limb at all cost. But deliberately to placethem in peril—how could that be right either? To go too far is
as bad as not going far enough.12
As a matter of fact, I know that there is nothing difficult
about endangering the body; the difficult thing is to keep it
constantly whole and well. Therefore I say, the most difficult
thing of all is to preserve continuity.13 In all due respect I writethese words for those who are practicing the Way, so that they
may consider them wisely and make their choice.
The Shramana Ryokan
12. The last sentence is quoted from the Confucian Analects XI, 15.
13. Ryokan probably means in particular the continuity of the religious
teachings handed down from the Zen masters of the past.

121 £**

'.

Translations from the Oriental Classics

Major Plays of Chikamatsu, tr. Donald Keene
Pour Major Plays of Chikamatsu, tr. Donald Keene. Paperback text edi¬
tion.
Records of the Grand Historian of China, translated from the Shih chi of Ssuma Ch'ien, tr. Burton Watson, 2 vols.
Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by
Wang Yang-ming, tr. Wing-tsit Chan
Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson, paperback ed. only
The Mahabhdrata, tr. Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan. Also in paper¬

1961
1961
1961
1963
1964

back ed.
The Manydshu, Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai edition
Su Tung-p'o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet, tr. Burton Watson
Bhartrihari: Poems, tr. Barbara Staler Miller. Also in paperback ed.
Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hsiin Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu, tr. Burton Watson.
Also in separate paperback eds.
The Awakening of Faith, Attributed to Asvaghosha, tr. Yoshito S. Hakeda.

1965
1965
1965
1967

Also in paperback ed.
Reflections on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology, comp. Chu
Hsi and Lii Tsu-ch'ien, tr. Wing-tsit Chan
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, tr. Philip B. Yampolsky
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko, tr. Donald Keene. Also1967

in paperback ed.
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, tr. Ivan Morris, 2 vols.
Two Plays of Ancient India: The Little Clay Cart and the Minister's Seal, tr.

1967
1967

J. A. B. van Buitenen
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, tr. Burton Watson
The Romance of the Western Chamber (Hsi Hsiang chi) tr. S. I. Hsiung.

1968
1968

Also in paperback ed.
The Manydshu, Nippon

1968
Gakujutsu

Shinkokai

edition.

1967

1967
1967

Paperbacktext edition.
Records of the Historian: Chapters from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien.

19^>9Paperback text edition, tr. Burton Watson
Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by the T'ang Poet Han-shan, tr. Burton Watson.

*9^9Also in paperback ed.

197°

123

Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, ed. Donald Keene. Also in paperbacked.
Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, tr. Donald Keene. Also in
paperback ed.
The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, tr. Philip B. Yampolsky
Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from the Han and Six Dynas¬
ties Periods, tr. Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed.
Kukai: Major Works, tr. Yoshito S. Hakeda
The Old Man Who Does as He Pleases: Selections from the Poetry and I rose

1970
1971
1971
1971
1972

of Lu Yu, tr. Burton Watson
The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimdla, tr. Alex & Hideko Wayman
Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China: Selections from the History of

1973
1974

The Former Han by Pan Ku, tr. Burton Watson
Japanese Literature in Chinese. Vol. i: Poetry and Prose in Chinese by Japa¬

1974

nese Writers of the Early Period, tr. Burton Watson
Japanese Literature in Chinese. Vol. II: Poetry and Prose in Chinese by Japa¬

1975

nese Writers of the Later Period, tr. Burton Watson
Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, tr. Leon Hurvitz. Also1976

in paperback ed.
Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, tr. Barbara Stoler
Miller. Also in paperback ed. Cloth ed. includes critical text of the
Sanskrit.
Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, tr. Burton Watson•*§ 124 O

1976

1977
1977

Studies in Oriental Culture

1. The Onin War: History of Its Origins and Background, with a Selective
Translation of the Chronicle of Onin, by H. Paul Varley1967

2. Chinese Government in Ming Times: Seven Studies, ed. Charles O.
Hucker1969

3. The Actors' Analects (Yakusha Kongo), ed. and tr. by Charles J. Dunn
and Bunzo Torigoe

i969

4. Self and Society in Ming Thought, by Wm. Theodore de Bary and theConference on Ming Thought. Also in paperback ed.
5. A History of Islamic Philosophy, by Majid Fakhry
6. Phantasies of a Love Thief: The Caurapahcasika Attributed to Bilhana, by Barbara Stoler Miller
7. Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan, ed. Hafeez Malik
8. The Golden Tradition: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry, by Ahmed Ali.
Also in paperback ed.
9. Conquerors and Confucians: Aspects of Political Change in Late Yuan
China, by John W. Dardess
10. The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, by Wm. Theodore de Bary andthe Conference on Seventeenth-Century Chinese Thought. Also in
paperback ed.
11. To Acquire Wisdom: The Way of Wang Yang-ming, by Julia Ching
12. Gods, Priests, and Warriors: The Bhrgus of the Mahabhdrata, byRobert P. Goldman
13. Mei Yao-ch'en and the Development of Early Sung Poetry, by Jonathan
Chaves^125 £*>

1970
1970
1971
1971
1973
1973

1975
1976
1977
1976

Companions Jo Asian Studies

Approaches to the Oriental Classics, ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary
Early Chinese Literature, by Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed.

1959
1962

Approaches to Asian Civilization, ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary and Ainslie
T. Embree
The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction, by C. T. Hsia. Also in1964

paperback ed.
Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century, tr.

1968

Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed.
A Syllabus of Indian Civilization, by Leonard A. Gordon and Barbara

1971

Stoler Miller
Twentieth-Century Chinese Stories, ed. C. T. Hsia and Joseph S. M. Lau.

1971

Also in paperback ed.
A Syllabus of Chinese Civilization, by J. Mason Gentzler, 2d ed.
A Syllabus of Japanese Civilization, by H. Paul Varley, 2d ed.
An Introduction to Chinese Civilization, ed. John Meskill, with the assis¬
tance of J. Mason Gentzler
An Introduction to Japanese Civilization, ed. Arthur E. Tiedemann
A Guide to Oriental Classics, ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary and Ainslie T.
Embree, 2d ed. Also in paperback ed.

1971
1972
1972
1973
1974
1975

Introduction % Oriental Civilizations
Wm. Theodore de Bary, Editor
Paperback ed., 2 vols. 1964

Sources of Japanese Tradition 1958
Sources of Indian Tradition 1958
Sources of Chinese Tradition 1960

Paperback ed., 2 vols. 1964
Paperback ed., 2 vols. 1964

*«§

126

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