Saigyō — From Warrior of the Northern Guard to Ordained Priest, the Sage of Poetry Who Lived His Life in Travel

Saigyō’s Position

Saigyō (1118-1190) is a representative poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura. Lay name Satō Norikiyo; his ordained name was En’i; his sobriquet was Saigyō.

Ninety-four poems of Saigyō are included in the Shinkokin Wakashū — the most of any poet. He is a pillar of the Shinkokin comparable to Teika and Retired Emperor Go-Toba. His personal collection Sankashū contains about 2,300 poems.

Saigyō is a poet who was also a monk who lived his life traveling. Deified as a “Sage of Poetry” (kasei), he was later revered by Zeami, Sōgi, and Bashō, and is one of the most deeply inscribed poets in Japanese cultural history.

Life

Background and Early Life (1118-1140)

• Born in Kyoto in 1118 to a warrior family of Fujiwara descent (the Satō being a branch of the Fujiwara)
• From a young age became a Warrior of the Northern Guard (imperial retired-emperor’s guard) under Retired Emperor Toba
• A samurai’s post comparable to the Fujiwara regent-house rank
• Had wife and children, with the road of worldly advancement open

Ordination — 1140 (age 23)

In Hōen 6 (1140), Saigyō suddenly took the tonsure. Age 23. Various theories about the reason:

• Failure in love — an unattainable love for a noble woman (variously identified, e.g., Taikenmon’in Shōshi, the mother of Emperor Sutoku)
• Sense of impermanence — the death of a close friend
• Political despair — the foreshadowing of the Hōgen-Heiji Disturbances
• Religious awakening — a deep devotion to Buddhism

The Tale of Saigyō (a legendary biography of the Kamakura period) depicts the intense scene of Saigyō kicking away his daughter to take the tonsure (not a historical fact, but widely circulated as legend).

Travels After Ordination (1140-1190)

After ordination, Saigyō traveled for about 50 years, intermittently. Main journeys:

• Journey to Mutsu (Tōhoku) (c. 1147) — around age 30, as far as Hiraizumi
• Journey to Shikoku (c. 1168) — around age 50, visiting Retired Emperor Sutoku’s tomb in Sanuki
• Second journey to Mutsu-Hiraizumi (c. 1186) — around age 68, on a fundraising campaign for the rebuilding of Tōdai-ji
• Long stays at Mount Kōya, Ise, and Kumano

Between journeys, he stayed long at Mount Kōya (headquarters of Shingon Buddhism) and Ise. In various places he composed poems, later collected in Sankashū.

Meeting Yoritomo — 1186

On his journey to Mutsu, he met Minamoto no Yoritomo in Kamakura. Yoritomo revered Saigyō and they talked through a night. Yoritomo gave him a silver cat, but Saigyō gave it to a child and departed — the anecdote goes.

Death at Kawachi’s Hirokawa-dera (1190)

On February 16, Kenkyū 1 (1190), Saigyō died at 73 at Hirokawa-dera in Kawachi (present-day Minami-Kawachi county, Osaka).

During his life Saigyō had composed: “Negawaku wa / hana no moto nite / haru shinamu / sono kisaragi no / mochizuki no koro” (Would that I might die under the flowers in spring, at the season of the full moon in the second month).

His actual death was February 16, one day after the full moon, in cherry-blossom season. Legendized in Japanese cultural history as a death matching the poem.

Representative Poems

Representative Poem 1: One of the Three Twilight Poems (Shinkokinshū 4, 362)

“Kokoro naki / mi ni mo aware wa / shirarekeri / shigi tatsu sawa no / aki no yūgure”

• kokoro naki mi — a body without heart (=I, an ordained one removed from the world)
• aware wa shirarekeri — sorrow is known (=feeling is understood)
• shigi tatsu sawa — the marsh where the snipe rises
• aki no yūgure — the autumn dusk

Even to my “no-heart body” as an ordained one, the loneliness of an autumn dusk is understood. Inscribing the feeling that does not vanish even when one leaves the world — Saigyō’s signature poem and one of the three twilight poems of the Shinkokinshū.

Representative Poem 2: Prayer to the Cherry (Sankashū)

“Negawaku wa / hana no moto nite / haru shinamu / sono kisaragi no / mochizuki no koro”

• negawaku wa — what I wish is
• hana no moto nite haru shinamu — to die under the flowers (=cherry) in spring
• sono kisaragi no mochizuki no koro — at the time of the full moon in the second lunar month

The full moon of Kisaragi = the day of the Buddha’s parinirvana (2/15) — the wish to die on the anniversary of the Buddha’s death under the cherry. A representative poem of the fusion of Buddhist consciousness and love of the cherry. That his actual death was the following day (16) gave rise to the legend of “the fulfillment of the poem.”

Representative Poem 3: Moon of Mutsu (Shinkokinshū 4, 385)

“Miyako nite / tsuki wo aware to / omoishi wa / kazu ni mo aranu / susabi narikeri”

Thinking of the moon in the capital as sad was nothing more than an idle diversion. The difference between the moon he sees on the journey to Mutsu and the moon he used to see in the capital — looking back from afar.

Representative Poem 4: Poem at Hiraizumi (Sankashū)

“(Hiraizumi no) / Matsushima no / tsuki wa masumi no / sora ni ari / kage wo / sawabe no / tsuki ni miru kana”

The moon of Matsushima at Hiraizumi is in a clear sky; and I see its reflection in the marsh-side moon. Contrast of the actual moon and its reflection in the water. A famous poem of the journey to Mutsu.

Representative Poem 5: On the Verge of Death (Sankashū)

“Hotoke ni wa / sakura no hana wo / tatemate / waga nochi no yo wo / hito toburawaba”

Offer cherry blossoms to the Buddha, when someone mourns me in the world to come. A testamentary poem asking for cherry to be offered as the Buddha’s flower after his death. Fusion of clinging to the cherry and Buddhist faith.

Representative Poem 6: A Love Poem (Sankashū)

“Nageke tote / tsuki ya wa mono wo / omowasuru / kakochi-gao naru / waga namida kana”

Does the moon make me brood, saying “Grieve”? (Even though it does not) I blame the moon — such are my tears. A meta questioning of the relation between moon and love in a fine poem. Hyakunin Isshu No. 86.

Representative Poem 7: Poem at Hirokawa-dera (tradition, Saigyō’s death-verse)

“Kaze ni chiru / hana no yukue wa / shiranedomo / oshimu kokoro wa / mi ni tomari keri”

Where the flowers scattered by the wind have gone I do not know, but a heart that mourns them remains in me. Traditionally said to be a poem just before his death. Clinging to the flower, and self-reflection on that clinging.

Saigyō’s Style and Thought

1. Plain and Direct, Yet Deep

Against the technique-rich style of the other Shinkokin poets (Teika, Jakuren, etc.), Saigyō’s poems are relatively plain and direct. Kakekotoba, engo, and other techniques are minimal; he composes as he saw and felt. And yet a deep sense of impermanence and the reality of travel sediment within the plainness.

2. The Theme of “Flower and Moon” (Kagetsu)

Saigyō’s poems most often sing of cherry blossoms and the moon. About 230 poems of “hana” and about 340 of “tsuki.” This established the theme of “kachō fūgetsu” (flower, bird, wind, moon) at the heart of later Japanese culture.

3. Travel and Impermanence

Many of Saigyō’s poems were composed on the road, and inscribe the names of lands away from the capital. Mutsu, Sanuki, Kumano, Ise — the names of places live in his poems. This laid the ground for the tradition of the utamakura, and the ground of Bashō’s Oku no Hosomichi.

4. Internalization of “Aware”

The core emotion of Saigyō’s poems is “aware” (feeling, sorrow, tenderness). The “aware” of the Man’yōshū is an outward exclamation; Saigyō’s “aware” is a deep inner sympathy. “Kokoro naki mi ni mo aware wa shirarekeri” shows this best.

5. Between Ordination and the World

Saigyō remained a monk, and yet composed worldly feelings (love, attachment, fear of death) in his poems throughout his life. This created the archetype of “the ordained one in the world” — the medieval Japanese “tonseisha” (recluse).

Saigyō as Legend

The Tale of Saigyō

The Tale of Saigyō compiled in the Kamakura period is a book that legendized Saigyō’s life. The scene of kicking his daughter, dialogues with gods and Buddhas, miracles in various places — none historically factual, but they had great influence on the formation of the Saigyō image.

Position as “Sage of Poetry”

• Heian’s Ki no Tsurayuki — Sage of Poetry (Kokinshū Kana Preface)
• Kamakura’s Saigyō — Sage of Poetry (in the Shinkokin era)
• Edo’s Matsuo Bashō — Sage of Poetry (in the haikai era)

These three form the lineage of “Sages of Poetry” in Japanese cultural history. Saigyō, in particular, is the most influential archetype of “the traveling poet” for Sōgi and Bashō to follow.

Relation to Bashō

Edo’s Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) made Saigyō the object of his deepest reverence. Bashō’s Oku no Hosomichi (1689) is a travel record consciously retracing Saigyō’s journeys to Mutsu (c. 1147, c. 1186).

Bashō’s utamakura: Hiraizumi, Matsushima, Kisakata — all places Saigyō had visited. Bashō stood in the scenes Saigyō had sung and composed haiku with the awareness “I am now singing what continues from Saigyō.”

The Sankashū — Summit of the Personal Collection

The Sankashū is a personal collection (shikashū) of poems Saigyō composed through his life. What survives is an edition edited by disciples and later hands after his death; there are several variants.

• Number of poems: about 2,300
• Compilation period: Saigyō’s late years (1180s?) and after his death (early 13th century?)
• Structure: by theme — spring, summer, autumn, winter, love, miscellaneous

The Sankashū was the summit of the personal collection, becoming the model for later Teika’s Shūi Gusō and Fujiwara no Yoshitsune’s Akishino Gessei-shū.

Toward the Next Article

Another important Shinkokin poet is Princess Shokushi (Shikishi Naishinnō, 1149-1201) — daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who served as the Kamo Sai’in. She stayed single throughout her life and left introspective love poems. She had a master-disciple relationship with Fujiwara no Shunzei and Teika. The next article traces Princess Shokushi.