Research Catalog

Title

Great Fool : Zen master Ryōkan : poems, letters, and other writings / translated with essays by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel.

Author

Ryōkan, 1758-1831.

Publication

Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, [1996], ©1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Abe, Ryūichi, 1954-
• Haskel, Peter.

Description

xvi, 306 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• Taigu Ryokan (1758-1831) remains one of the most popular figures in Japanese Buddhist history. Despite his religious and artistic sophistication (he excelled in scriptural studies, in calligraphy, and in poetry), Ryokan referred to himself as "Great Fool," refusing to place himself within any established religious institution.
• In contrast to Zen masters of his time who presided over large monasteries, trained students, or produced recondite treatises, Ryokan followed a life of mendicancy in the countryside. Instead of delivering sermons, he expressed himself through kanshi (poems composed in classical Chinese) and waka (poems in Japanese syllabary) and could typically be found playing with the village children in the course of his daily rounds of begging.
• .
• Great Fool is the first study in a Western language to offer a comprehensive picture of the legendary poet-monk and his oeuvre. It includes not only an extensive collection of the master's kanshi, topically arranged to facilitate an appreciation of Ryokan's colorful world, but selections of his waka, essays, and letters.
• The volume also presents for the first time in English the Ryokan zenji kiwa (Curious Accounts of the Zen Master Ryokan), a firsthand source composed by a former student less than sixteen years after Ryokan's death. Consisting of anecdotes and episodes, sketches from Ryokan's everyday life, the Curious Accounts is invaluable for showing how Ryokan was understood and remembered by his contemporaries.
• . To further assist the reader, three introductory essays approach Ryokan from the diverse perspectives of his personal history and literary work.

Subject

• Ryōkan, 1758-1831

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-294) and index.

Contents

Essays. Ryokan of Mount Kugami / Peter Haskel. A Poetics of Mendicancy: Nondualist Philosophy and Ryokan's Figurative Strategies / Ryuichi Abe. Commemorating Ryokan: The Origin and Growth of Ryokan Biographies / Ryuichi Abe -- Translations. Curious Accounts of the Zen Master Ryokan / Kera Yoshishige. Kanshi (Poems in Chinese). My Poems Aren't Poems. With My Begging Bowl. In My Hut. Playing with the Children. Mountains and Mists. Wandering. Meditations. Neighbors and Friends. Butterfly Dreams. Strolling without a Care. Waka (Poems in Japanese). Dew on the Lotus. Letters. Reflections on Buddhism. Invitation to the Way. The Priesthood. On Begging One's Food. Fragments. Words of Advice.

ISBN

• 082481777X (paper : alk. paper)
• 0824817419 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

95042750

OCLC

ocm33243248

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries