The influence of Zen Master Ikkyu (1394-1481) permeates the full field of medieval Japanese aesthetics.
His awakening outshines the small idols of reason, emotion, self, desire, doctrine, even of Buddhism itself..
All of this is his Buddhism.
They are peopled with ancient Chinese poets, cantankerous Japanese Zen Masters, contemporary warlords, and his lover Mori, a blind musician who lived with Ikkyu the last eleven years of his life.
The Poems in this collection express the unborn bliss of Ikkyu\'s realization and equally his devastation at the horrors of this world.
He died before that project was complete.
A lifelong outsider to religious establishments, Ikkyu nonetheless accepted Imperial command to rebuild his home temple, Daitoku-ji, destroyed in the civil wars.
In his poetry, he turns the eye of enlightenment to all phenomena: politics, pine trees, hard meditation practice, sex, wine.
Ikkyu is unique in Zen for letting his love of all appearance occupy him until it destroys any possibility for safety or seclusion.
Though best known as a poet, he was central to the shaping and reshaping of practices in calligraphy, Noh theater, tea ceremony, and rock gardening, all of which now define Japan\'s sense of its cultural tradition.
The influence of Zen Master Ikkyu (1394-1481) permeates the full field of medieval Japanese aesthetics
