Ikkyū Sōjun

This article is about a Zen master. Ikkyū also denotes the 1st Kyū degree.

Portrait of Ikkyū Sōjun by his student Bokusai.

Ikkyū Sōjun ( Japanese一 休 宗 純; * February 1, 1394 in Saga near Kyōto ; † December 12, 1481 ) was a Japanese Zen master and poet . He was also one of the creators of the Japanese tea ceremony .

biography

Ikkyu was in the Muromachi period during the Ashikaga - Shogunate than likely illegitimate son of Emperor Go-Komatsu - tennō born when the Japanese capital of Kamakura to Kyoto was transferred back.

In 1399 Ikkyū Sōjun was separated from his mother, as he could fall victim to assassins due to his possible aspiration to the throne.

In 1406 Ikkyū Sōjun first noticed his talent for poetry by imitating Tang poems.

First he became a student of Master Keno . When he died in 1408 Ikkyū tried to drown himself in Lake Biwa .

In 1414 he applied to Master Kaso Sodon , a well-known Japanese Buddhist Zen monk. In the then still in the construction stage Daitoku-ji temple of the Rinzai school in Kyōto, Ikkyū gained increasing importance and thus came into conflict with Yōsō Sōi (養 叟 宗 頤; 1379-1458), an older student who had been himself for 20 years endeavored to become Zen masters.

For years Ikkyū fought with his kōan , took part in master Kasos Dokusan , made dolls for a shop in Kyoto. In Kyōto Ikkyū met fortune tellers, wine merchants, courtesans and fishermen. In 1418 he experienced his satori and received the Dharma name Ikkyū (a stop) from Master Kaso .

In 1420 Ikkyū learned of enlightenment when a crow screamed. After he stepped down from being a Zen master, this was the proof for Master Kaso that he was now a Zen master after all.

Since Ikkyū insulted monastery visitors , Master Kaso determined Yōsō now as his Dharma heir as abbot. In Ikkyū's poems, Yōsō appears as a person obsessed with material goods who sold Zen for the prosperity of the monastery.

After breaking with Yōsō and his materialistic methods, Ikkyū left the temple and lived as a hermit in a Katsuroan (hut of the blind donkey) and finally became a wandering monk from 1423 to 1451, like his role models Lin-chi and Daito . He recruited students, did not have his hair sheared and, following the Wabi-Sabi, went around with his wife and son Jotei .

In 1435 he celebrated with courtesans, pirates, monks and others. a. He met regularly with important artists and poets of his time. In 1447 Ikkyū was prevented from fasting to death during a public strike against corruption . In 1471 he fell in love with the blind singer and koto player Mori , 40 years his junior , which caused a scandal in the Zen community. With her he fathered a daughter. He dedicated 180 of his 800 poems to Mori.

Ikkyū came to Daitoku-ji monastery in 1476, which he left after 10 days because some guests of honor tried to bribe him. However, he worked briefly on the reconstruction of the buildings that burned down in the Ōnin war . It is often assumed that Ikkyū was elected abbot during this period, a position he never held. In 1481 Ikkyū died of a febrile illness at the age of 88.

influence

Ikkyū was and is famous and controversial for his erotic poems and his attacks on the Zen aristocracy. On charges of hypocrisy, he invited her to discuss things with him in the brothels and sake bars.

Ikkyū is one of the most significant (and eccentric) figures in Zen history. For Japanese children he is a folk hero, malicious and repeatedly outwitting his teachers and the Shogun .

This reputation results from the popular anime television series Ikkyū-san . For example, he's also the main character in Akkambe Ikkyū , a manga by Hisashi Sakaguchi .

In the Rinzai Zen tradition, he is both a heretic and a saint. Ikkyū was among the few Zen priests who argued that their enlightenment had been deepened through dealing with women. He went into brothels in his black robe because he saw sexual intercourse as a religious rite. At the same time he warned the Zen community against their own bureaucratic intrigues.

Ikkyū wrote in classical Chinese , like some of the writers in Japan at the time . His poetry is immediate and apt, insightful and sometimes moving. He is also known as one of the greatest calligraphers in medieval Japan, and he also used ink to paint.

literature

• Ulrich Holbein : Narratorium . 255 images of life. Ammann Verlag , Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-250-10523-7 . Pp. 448-450.
• Ikkyû Sôjun: Poems from the Mad Cloud . Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 3-936018-48-0
• Ikkyu and the Crazy Cloud Anthology , Sonja Arntzen, 1987, University of Tokyo Press, ISBN 0-86008-340-3
• Unraveling Zen's Red Thread: Ikkyu's Controversial Way , Dr. Jon Carter Covell and Abbot Sobin Yamada, 1980, HollyM International, Elizabeth, New Jersey, ISBN 0-930878-19-1 .
• Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu , trans. v. John Stevens, Shambhala, Boston, 1995.
• Only Companion. Japanese Poems of Love and Longing , trans. v. Sam Hamill
• Crow with No Mouth , Version by Stephen Berg
• Stanford, James; Zen Man Ikkyū; Ann Arbor 1981
• Steiner, Evgeny. Zen-Life: Ikkyu and Beyond . Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.  ISBN 978-1-4438-5400-9 .

From a historical point of view, the sources on Ikkyū are questionable. Essentially, they are limited to the hagiography of his student Bokusai and to conclusions that can be drawn from Ikkyū's poems.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Ulrich Holbein: Narratorium. 255 images of life. Ammann Verlag , Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-250-10523-7 . P. 448 f.
2. ↑ Daigan Lee Matsunaga and Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. II; The mass movement (Kamakura & Muromachi periods) . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1976. ISBN 0-914910-27-2 . P. 231.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ikkyū Sōjun in the catalog of the German National Library

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ikkyū is the family name, Sōjun the first name.