Deep Kyoto

good places - good people

  • About Deep Kyoto
  • About Michael Lambe
    • ARTICLES BY MICHAEL LAMBE
    • ARTICLES FOR INSIDE KYOTO
  • Books
  • Deep Kyoto Hotels
  • Flea Market
    • Bag Stall
    • Furoshiki Stall
    • Kimono Stall
    • Nintendo Playing Cards
    • Pottery Fair
  • 日本語

Ikkyū

May 20, 2010 By Michael Lambe

Ian Ropke writes…

Portrait of Ikkyū by Bokusai (Public Domain)

Ikkyū was a Zen monk who was famous for burning the candle of life at both ends. By day, he was devout and extremely accomplished monk and scholar. By night, he reveled in the so-called “floating world” of drink and women. He lived in tumultuous 15th century Japan at a time when most of the country was ruined by civil war.

Ikkyū was born the illegitimate son of an emperor and a court lady. As a boy he already displayed remarkable abilities and intelligence. He was particularly attracted to Chinese culture which he absorbed and used for the rest of his life in his poetic imagery. He was not good looking. His Zen apprenticeship began at age 13 at Kennin-ji Temple, Kyoto’s oldest Zen temple, located, ironically, just south of the first-class world of wine and women: Gion. From a young age, he took naturally to criticizing the world of hypocrisy he saw around him in temples and in the ruling families of his day.
His first spiritual master, Keno, lived in an old rundown temple on Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake (in Shiga Prefecture, just east of Kyoto). He spent much of his life on the shores of the lake. When Keno died, he moved in the Daitoku-ji branch temple headed by the monk Kaso. To support the temple, which also had little money, he crafted dolls which he sold in Kyoto. From this time onwards he also began to spend much of his free time in the local taverns, brothels and fishing huts.
He achieved enlightenment while listening to a band of blind singers performing a tragic love ballad on the shores of the lake. From that time, he took the name Ikkyū, which literally translated means One Pause. He wrote this poem just after reaching enlightenment the first time.

From the world of passions,
returning to the world of passions.
There is a moment’s pause —
if it rains, let it rain,
If the wind blows let it blow.

Apparently in the summer of 1424, he experienced enlightenment a second time while meditating in a fishing boat when he heard the call of lone crow at twilight. His master issued him a certificate of enlightment the second time and this caused Ikkyū to storm out of the temple in disgust. Nevertheless, Kaso hoped to make Ikkyū his heir when he died. Ikkyu cared for him in his dying days, going as far as to clean the old man’s excrement with nothing but his hands. Another monk was given the position of heir and Ikkyū began a long period of wandering. He wandered around for 30 years until he was nearly 60. During this time, he saw himself as a crazy cloud and increasingly identified with the philosophy of the monk Rinzai, founder of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism and Daito (founder of the Daitoku-ji monastery Ikkyū would one day be the head abbot of). He married and had a son, who went on to become of the Japan’s most respected tea masters. Indeed, Daitoku-ji Temple is closely connected with the Japanese tea ceremony even today.

woodcut print of ikkyu and jigoku dayu courtesan
Ikkyu meets the courtesan Jigoku Dayu, woodcut print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1886), Public Domain.

Like Rinzai he had long hair and beard. However, unlike Rinzai and much of the monk and samurai establishment, Ikkyū rejected the traditional life of the men of his day. He took female students and considered them his equal. He also drank wine, ate animal flesh and had many female lovers. In his late years, he became a prominent practitioner and patron of the arts, including calligraphy, painting, poetry, which he practiced as a way to transmit Zen.

Daitokuji Butsuden Hondo (Source: 663highland on Wikimedia Commons)

In 1474, when Ikkyū was in his late seventies and had a 30-year-old blind composer musician mistress, the emperor ordered him to become the head abbot of prestigious Daitoku-ji Temple. The temple had nearly been destroyed by the Onin Wars that raged across Kyoto for more than 15 years. It was a tough task, but he succeeded. Seven years later, the temple had nearly been restored and Ikkyu died.

Natural, reckless, correct skill;
Yesterday’s clarity is today’s stupidity
The universe has dark and light, entrust oneself to change
One time, shade the eyes and gaze afar at the road of heaven.

Text by Ian Ropke. Ian Ropke is the author of the Historical Dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto and director of Your Japan Private Tours. You can read his previous articles for Deep Kyoto here.

Learn more:
The following links are affiliate links. The owner of this site may earn a commision from qualifying purchases.


“The poems in this collection express the unborn bliss of Ikkyū’s realization and equally his devastation at the horrors of this world. They are peopled with ancient Chinese poets, cantankerous Japanese Zen Masters, contemporary warlords, and his lover Mori, a blind musician who lived with Ikkyū the last eleven years of his life. All of this is his Buddhism. His awakening outshines the small idols of reason, emotion, self, desire, doctrine, even of Buddhism itself.”Buy on Amazon
Buy on Amazon.co.jp

“Few Buddhist monks throughout history are as well-known as the eccentric, clever Ikkyu. Wind and Rain tells the story of the legendary quick-witted monk. This unusual monk devoted himself to helping others, bringing relief to refugees and clearing delusion from the minds of those tied to the material. His unorthodox and cunning methods dispelled ignorance from commoners and nobles alike, bringing Buddhism to all. Wind and Rain is an unforgettable graphic novel biography of this one-of-a-kind teacher.”

Buy on Amazon
Buy on Amazon.co.jp

this ink painting of wind blowing through pines
who hears it?

clouds very high look
not one word helped them get up there

alone with the icy moon no passion
these trees this mountain nothing else

nobody understands why we do what we do
this cup of sake does

passion’s red thread is infinite
like the earth always under me

– Ikkyū’s work is translated here by poet Stephen Berg.

Buy on Amazon
Buy on Amazon.co.jp

“In this volume, acclaimed poet Stephen Berg presents freely adapted “versions” of many of Ikkyu ’s most compelling poems as well as new poems inspired by Ikkyu.”

“Ikkyu, the Zen master who scoffed at Zen is one of the world’s grand pessimists…on the other hand, when he writes about sex his earthly reckless enthusiasm is unmistakable. Stephen Berg’s adaptations are just right for Ikkyu ’s bitter sensitivity. From them one gets a very complex, even self-contradictory enjoyment, which is the mark,
I believe, of attending to genius.” —Hayden Carruth

“Ikkyu scandalized the Zen community of his day and is likely to scandalize some readers even now – his short poems are simultaneously bawdy, abrupt, vulgar and reverential…It is impossible not to love the velocity and variety of his verse.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

Buy on Amazon
Buy on Amazon.co.jp


Arntzen’s classic study and select translation of the Japanese medieval Zen poetry Crazy Cloud Anthology (Kyōunshū 狂雲集) by the Buddhist monk Ikkyū.”Translations from the Crazy Cloud Anthology, or Kyōunshū 狂雲集, Ikkyū’s major collection of poetry in literary Chinese, form the core of this work. Ikkyū’s biography and historical context of medieval Japan are outlined in the first part of the introduction. The analysis sections provide a portal for the reader to enter the world of the poems by demonstrating how Ikkyū’s poetry produces experiences of Zen most often through the dialectical use of allusion.”

Buy on Amazon
Buy on Amazon.co.jp


“This book
tells the life stories of Ikkyu, Hakuin, and Ryokan. Each was an outstanding figure who manifested Zen in his own way. Ikkyu was unconventional and uncompromising, a relentless enemy of the hypocrisy that pervaded the religious circles of his day. Hakuin under­went a strenuous apprenticeship to become a Master Teacher of Zen, training hundreds of disciples and insisting that they endure the same trials that he had. Ryokan, in contrast, was a gentle recluse who lived in quiet hermitages, savor­ing nature and writing poetry. All three were artists who employied brush, ink, and paper as a means of transmitting Zen teachings and creating unique works of art.”Buy on Amazon
Buy on Amazon.co.jp

Filed Under: Culture & Tradition, Ian Ropke, Poetry Tagged With: floating world, Ikkyū, zen

Search hotels and more...

Destination

Check-in date

Mon 16 Jun 2025

Check-out date

Tue 17 Jun 2025
Booking.com

Kyoto: A Literary Guide #AD

Deep Kyoto’s Best…

BARS
CAFES
DINING
EVENTS
HOTELS

Japan Station

Japan Transportation Guide
Japan Transportation Guide
Kyoto Transportation Guide
Kyoto Transportation Guide
Osaka Transportation Guide
Osaka Transportation Guide