A Wayfaring Poet Profile of the Zen hermit-poet Ryokan Taigu (1758-1831)

A Wayfaring Poet Profile of another interesting figure in the Japanese branch of the Wayfaring tradition, Yosa Buson (1716-1783), master artist and haiku poet

In this episode of The Poet’s Dreamingbody, we are taking a look at the female haiku master of the Edō Period (1603-1868): Chiyo-ni.

One of the most compelling figures in the Japanese branch of the Wayfaring lineage, Baisaō - “The Old Tea Seller” - is significant for his unique expression of “going his own way,” in the spiritual sense, but also his role as an innovator in the practice of Tea as a way-within-the-Way. Add to this his love of Nature, his embodiment of the Wayfaring life principle of simplicity, and the precision of his flowing brush in the realms of poetry and prose, and it made him a much beloved “rascal” to numerous artists, tea practitioners, and Zen-minded folk in 18th-century Kyoto.

In this Wayfaring Poet Profile, we explore the life and a few of the verses of Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694). We discuss a range of topics in this episode including haiku poetry, haibun travel writing, the influence of Taoism, Shinto animism, and Zen on his path, the inspiration he drew from certain Wayfarers that preceded him, and some of his unique experiences that hint at the phenomenon of the dreambody — a concept first coined by Jungian-trained consciousness explorer Arnold Mindell.

With gratitude to all of the translators who have brought forth their own unique perspectives and understandings of Bashō.

BOOKS

The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa, edited by Robert Hass

Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings, translated by Sam Hamill

Basho: The Complete Haiku, translated, annotated and introduction by Jane Reichhold

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa

A Zen Wave: Basho’s Haiku and Zen, by Robert Aitken

The Essential Basho, translated by Sam Hamill

Basho’s Journey: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, translated by David Landis Barnhill

The Master Haiku Poet: Matsuo Basho, translated with commentary by Makoto Ueda

The Art of Haiku: Its History Through Poems and Paintings, by Stephen Addiss

On Haiku, by Hiroaki Sato

The Essential Chuang Tzu, translated by Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton

HAIKU: The Last Poetry of Richard Wright, introduction by Julia Wright

Descended From A Travel-Worn Satchel: Haiku and Haibun, by Chris La Tray

SOUNDSCAPES

Emergence / Bushido (Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos and Nori Akagi)

Mesmer / Roy Mattson

Music of the Smoky Rainbow / Roy Mattson

Watching Sunlight Fall Through Crowns of Trees / Lougi Verona

Tactile Ground / Robert Rich

Shingetsu / “Namu Amida Butsu” / Bronwyn Kirkpatrick

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Greetings Good Travelers and Wayfarers.

There are so many Wayfarers of the past that deserve a mention on The Poet’s Dreamingbody, whose paths were undoubtedly oriented to the Wayfaring Life, but who aren’t slotted to become a stand-alone Wayfaring Poet Profile in this first phase of the podcast. One of these is Zeami Motokiyo (世阿弥 元清).

Motokiyo was an innovator of Noh (a classical form of dance-drama-storytelling in Japan — often with distinctive masks — that inspired such Western poets as Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats).

He was a prolific and celebrated playwright who wrote over 50 plays. He was a lay Zen monk, and a scholar-practitioner who cultivated a deep life-embodiment of various aesthetic principles inseparable from most of the Wayfarers such as wabi (rustic, solitary living in nature, remote from society, with full comprehension of the transience of life) and sabi (lean, minimalism, voluntary simplicity).

Another one of these core aesthetic principles that guided Motokiyo’s life is yūgen (幽玄), which sometimes translates as “mysterious”, “deep”, “awe-inspiring”, “non-obvious”, or “grace and subtlety” — a quality that pervades many of the Japanese arts.

If we look at the actual kanji of this term yūgen, we get a bit more insight into the term: (幽 - secluded, confined to a room, deep, profound tranquility, calm; and, 玄 - mysterious). In essence, yūgen could be said to be a state of consciousness or even a practice — one of withdrawing from the mundane world and entering the ineffable.

Yūgen is sometimes said to be ‘that which is felt but cannot be said’. In a sense, this term yūgen points to the ever-present Taoist, Zen, and poetic conundrum:

We have a profound experience — deep, mysterious, awe-inspiring. However, human language and artistic expression fall short of expressing the fullness or totality of the profundity of the experience.

The opening line of the Tao Te Ching (a root text of the Taoist tradition that shaped so much of Zen) even says: “The Tao (Way or Path) that can be expressed is not the Eternal Tao (Way or Path).”

Yet, in the words of the late Sōtō Zen master Dainin Katagiri (1928-1990), “You have to say something.”

So, Zeami Motokiyo is one of these Wayfarers of the past who experienced the profundity of Nature, poetry, artistry, the interconnectedness of humanity, and heart-mind embedded within The Created, and — knowing full well the inherent limitations of expression…expressed nonetheless. Here is but one of his many quotes:

If you’d like to learn more about the life and writings of Zeami Motokiyo, I highly recommend William Scott Wilson’s translation of The Spirit of Noh: A New Translation of the Classic Noh Treatise, the Fushikaden on Shambhala Publications.

To explore the soundworld in the background of this post, visit Roy Mattson’s album MESMER

In this episode of The Poet’s Dreamingbody, we explore the iconoclastic Wayfarer Ikkyū Sōjun (1394-1491), a.k.a. “Crazy Cloud”

BOOKS MENTIONED

Zen Radicals, Rebels, and Reformers, by Perle Besserman and Manfred Steger

Zen Masters: A Maverick, a Master of Masters, and a Wandering Poet (Profiles of Ikkyu, Hakuin, Ryokan), by John Stevens

Unraveling Zen’s Red Thread: Ikkyu’s Controversial Way, by Dr. Jon Carter Covell and Abbot Sobin Yamada

Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu, translated by John Stevens

Wind in the Pines: Classic Writings of The Way of Tea As A Buddhist Path, by Dennis Hirota

SOUNDSCAPE

The Eagle and the Ocean / Riley Lee

The Poet's Dreamingbody is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.