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Santoka and Sake
Taneda Santooka 種田山頭火 Taneda Santoka
(1882-1940)
（明治15年）12月3日 - 1940年（昭和15年）10 月11日
a haiku nonconformist who cast aside all the rules including the 5-7-5 syllable structure, is also associated with Matsuyama. Santoka, an ordained Zen priest, after spending most of his life wandering all over the country as a begging monk, chose to settle in Matsuyama only to die 10 months later. The humble cottage where he dwelt --
Isso-an (A Blade of Grass Hermitage) is preserved north of Ehime University.
His books and documents are also preserved in Shiki Memorial Museum.
Read more about Santoka and his Life here:
Terebess Asia Online (TAO): Santoka
Westerners like to conquer mountains;
Orientals like to contemplate them.
As for me, I like to taste the mountains.
Santoka
Santoka Memorial Day, Santooka ki 山頭火忌
kigo for late autumn. October 11
Santoka :: Grass and Tree Cairn
tr. Hiroaki Sato
100 pages to read
source : thehaikufoundation.org
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Collection compiled by Larry Bole, September 2006.
Santoka had a troubled relationship with alcohol.
As early as a 1918 haiku, he considers the subject (no Japanese text available):
Somehow
the sound of swallowing sake
seems very lonely
tr. Stephen Addiss
("The Art of Twentieth-Century Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Masters," Audrey Yoshiko Seo, catalog of the exhibit.)
Some other haiku Santoka wrote about sake and drinking, all translated by Burton Watson:
yoote koorogi to nete ita yo
so drunk
I slept
with the crickets!
ippai yaritai yuuyake-zora
a drink
would be nice now
sunset sky
yoeba iro-iro no koe ga kikoeru fuyuame
get drunk
you hear all sorts of voices
winter rain
yoi yado de dochira mo yama de mae wa sakaya de
nice inn
mountains all around
sake store in front
futo yoizame no kao go aru baketsu no mizu
suddenly
that hungover face
bucket water
yoizame no hana koboreru koboreru
hangover
and blossoms
scattering scattering
aru dake no sake o tabe kaze o kiki
finish the last
of the sake
hear the wind
midori yoeba iyo-iyo midori
green--
drunk and it gets
even greener
hiza ni sake no koboruru ni aitoo naru
sake slopping over
on our knees
wish we were together
And here are a few comments by Santoka from his diaries (translations by Burton Watson):
June 16, 1932
For the first time in five days, I had a drink of sake. It didn't taste very good, which makes me feel happy, and also rather depressed.
Anyway, there's no doubt that clearing up the problem of sake is the first step in clearing up the problem of myself.
July 20, 1932
People view all things, all events in terms of what they value in life, with that as their standard. I look at everything through the eyes of sake. Gazing far off at a mountain, I think how I'd like a little drink; I see some nice vegetables and think how well they'd go with the sake. If I had such-and-such sum, I could polish off a flask; if I had this much, I could buy a bottle.
You may laugh, but that's just the way I am--nothing I can do about it.
August 28, 1940
[written a little over six weeks before his death]
Sake is my koan. If I could understand sake--if I could learn the true way to enjoy sake, it would be my awakening, my breakthrough!
Compiled by Larry Bole
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From John Stevens' introduction to his book,
"Mountain Tasting: Zen Haiku by Santoka Taneda"
"Sake was Santoka's koan.
He said that 'to comprehend the true taste of sake will give me satori.' He attempted to completely efface himself through drinking, a practice not unknown among certain types of Zen monks. ...
'When I drink sake I do so with all my heart.
I throw myself recklessly into sake drinking.'
"There is no point in romanticizing Santoka's alcoholism, however. He himself struggled with this problem for many years and never solved his greatest koan. On several occasions he was even arrested for public drunkeness and vagrancy. ...
"Santoka admitted that he could do only three things well: walk, drink sake, and make haiku. Sake and haiku were almost identical:
'Sake for the body, haiku for the heart;
Sake is the haiku of the body,
Haiku is the sake of the heart.'"
Following are some of Stevens' translations of Santoka's haiku (with some overlap with Burton Watson's translations posted previously):
horohoro yoote ko no ha furu
Slightly tipsy;
The leaves fall
One by one.
[Santoka may be sober here, and it's just the leaves that seem tipsy to him]
ippai yaritai yuuyaki-zora
The sky at sunset--
A cup of sake
Would taste so good!
hitori shoogatsu no mochi mo sake mo ari soshite
Alone on New Year's Day--
There is mochi and sake
And...
ama no kawa mayonaka no yoidore wa odoru
Beneath the River of Heaven
The drunkard dances all night.
sake ga yamerarenai ki no me kusa no me
I can't give up sake;
The budding trees,
The budding grasses.
taberu mono wa atte you mono mo atte zassoo no ame
I've something to eat
And something to make me drunk;
Rain in the weeds.
sake wa nai tsuki shimijimi mite ori
No sake;
I stare at the moon.
yoote koorogi to nete ita yo
Drunk, I slept
With the crickets.
yoi yado de dochira mo yama de mae wa sakaya de
What a splendid inn!
Mountains in both directions
And a sake shop in front.
boro utte sake koote samishiku mo aru ka
If I sell my rags
And buy some sake
Will there still be loneliness?
Compiled by Larry Bole
ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo
Here is an anecdote about Santoka and a dog with a rice cake, from John Stevens' book "Mountain Tasting: Zen Haiku by Santoka Taneda:"
Santoka was used to sharing anything he had. One night, as Santoka prepared for another dinnerless evening, a large dog came to his door carrying a big rice cake in its mouth [perhaps a descendant of a rice cake-stealing dog that Issa wrote about?]. Santoka had no idea where the dog or the rice cake had come from.
He took the rice cake, split it in two and gave half to the dog, who then ran off into the darkness.
As soon as the dog was gone a little cat came up to Santoka and begged for some of the rice cake. Santoka split it again.
aki no yo ya inu kara morattari neko ni ataetari
Autumn night--
I received it from the dog
And gave it to the cat.
Compiled by Larry Bole
人声なつかしがる猫とおり
hitogoe natsukashigaru neko to ori
I stay with a cat
which craves to hear
words from us humans
ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo
音は 時雨 か
oto wa shigure ka
the sound, oh,
it's sleet !
(Tr. Gabi Greve)
Winter Drizzle (shigure)
Discussing Santoka's Haiku
Some Santoka Sake Haiku in French
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haiku about water
Santoka in Kumamoto
. konna ni umai mizu ga afurete iru
such delicious water is overflowing here .
Such delicious water
Overflows from the spring.
kyoo no ohiru wa mizu bakari
Today's lunch:
Only water.
taberu mono ga nakereba nai de suzushii mizu
There's still something to eat:
The cool water.
Tr. John Stevens
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. . . . . 炎天
. Blazing Sky (enten) haiku by Santoka
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山あれば山を観る
雨の日は雨を聴く
yama areba yama o miru
ame no hi wa ame o kiku
when there are mountians, I look at mountains
when there is a rainy day, I listen to the rain
Tr. Gabi Greve
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Plowing the field,
one hears a song
Haiga by Michael Daniel Hofmann
calligraphy by Jikihara Gyokusei
Translation by James Green & Hisashi Miura
- shared by Michael Daniel Hofmann - FB
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More about the Life of Taneda Santooka
種田山頭火
Santoka <>The master for all of us wandering pilgrims.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/438
Santoka, "shinjin datsuraku" and the Begging Bowl
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/1331
.....
About Taneda Santoka and his Somokuto 草木塔
百合咲けばお地蔵さまにも百合の花
yuri sakeba o-Jizoo sama ni mo yuri no hana
when the lilies blossom
even Jizo Bosatsu
gets some lilies
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山のしづかさへしづかなる雨
yama no shizukasa e shizuka naru ame
on the stillness of the mountain
the stillness of rain
Santoka at temple Eihei-Ji 永平寺
http://blowinthewind.net/santoka/eiheiji.htm
Tr. Gabi Greve
MOUNTAIN, could also be translated "monastery, temple".
Great Zen-Temple in the cold mountains of Gifu
Eihei-Ji Temple 永平寺
The mountain stillness
Makes the rain still.
Tr. John Stevens
over the mountain’s silence
silent rain
Tr. Burton Watson
By way of interpretation after a stormy night in July 2009, I am tempted to interpret this
tera no shizukasa e shizuka naru kokoro
in the quietude of this mountain temple
my heart (mind, soul) becomes quiet
Gabi Greve
HFB
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歩き続ける 彼岸花 咲き続ける
aruki-tsuzukeru higanbana saki-tsuzukeru
I keep walking
the spider lilies
keep blooming
. Spider Lilies (higanbana彼岸花, manjushage) .
- - - - -
yoote nemu nadeshiko sakeru ishi no ue
I'd like enough drinks
to put me to sleep--on stones
covered with pinks.
Tr. Harold Henderson
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
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Contributions by other Haiku Poets
so drunk
the tick that bit me
died
[2003, true story]
AA meeting
in the far corner
a cricket
Friday 9/14/06, local AA's, The Broken Bottle Club, Vineland, NJ.
Gene Murtha
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
palm wine sloshes
in my calabash -
sandals wearing thin
The delicious, milky-white drink is made by tapping the sap of the palm-oil tree, then allowing it to spontaneously ferment for several hours. It is sweet and lightly alcoholic. It is also hugely refreshing, and probably the nicest drink I've ever enjoyed!
Norman Darlington, written in Togo (West Africa)
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窓あけて 窓いっぱいの春
mado akete mado ippai no haru
opening the window
a window full
of spring
Old Scroll by Ando san, Photo from Ishino
Details about this haiku are HERE !
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. 生死の中の雪ふりしきる
seishi no naka no yuki furishikiru .
"To resolve life and to resolve death
are the most important Karma for a Buddhist"
- Shushogi （修証義）.
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during the war at 街頭所見 - (thinking of Nagasaki)
月のあかるさはどこを爆撃してゐることか
tsuki no akarusa wa doko o bakugeki shiteiru koto ka
the brightness of the moon
will it show where
the bombs are going to fall ?
Tr. Gabi Greve
another translation
Moon’s brightness I wonder where they’re bombing
source : Montage #20 THF Blog
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Kiefernwind und Grüne Berge
Der Wanderdichter Santōka und das Freie Haiku
aus dem Japanischen übersetzt und erläutert
von Robert F. Wittkamp
mit Kalligraphien von Mineko Sasaki-Stange und
Tuschemalereien von Mira Wallraven Ono
Etwas im Wasser
lässt selbst die Wolkenschatten
keine Ruhe finden
ISBN 978-3-932185-12-0
source : www.verlag-ganzheitlich-leben.de
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The Santoka: versions by Scott Watson
source : www.imcbook.net/poietikos
Walking by My Self Again - Taneda Santoka -
Versions by Scott Watson
Taneda Santoka (1882-1940) is a free style haikuist, which means he shed the various rules governing traditional or mainstream haiku composition. He is from Houfu in Yamaguchi Prefecture and is also connected with Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku, which is where he died. Santoka spent much of his adult life living in humble cottages or wandering the land as a mendicant Zen priest, composing haiku poems through each, as each, instance. Matsuyama is where he settled in a cottage he called Isso-an (A Blade of Grass Hermitage), dying there not long after. Scott Watson's versions seek to produce the sense that Santoka intended but not word for word translation.
- source : www.amazon.com
Walking By Myself Again: Santoka,
translated by Scott Watson
- source : lilliputreview.blogspot.jp -Issa's Untidy Hut
- source : www.mountainsandriverspress.org
Scott also shared this information
- on facebook in 2013 -
Santoka went into the sake brewing business with his father.
The business failed but the rights were purchased by another family and the brewery continues. They make a brand called Santoka. It is in Hofu, in Yamaguchi Pref. Which is Santoka's home town.
- source : yadolog/omiyage
【お土産】種田山頭火の愛した酒
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Related words
***** WKD : Ricewine (sake) and related KIGO
***** WKD : Matsuyama and the Shiki Memorial Museum
. Ozaki Hoosai 尾崎 放哉 Ozaki Hosai .
- and Sumitaku Kenshin 住宅顕信
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Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
Memorial Days of Famous People ..... SAIJIKI
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