Ryokan was a Soto Zen monk who was known for his poetry. Ryokan was born around 1758 in Echigo province on the west coast of Japan which is today, Niigata Prefecture.
He called himself Daigu, the "Great Fool". He trained under Kokusen at Entsu-ji for about twelve years. He studied, in addition to Zen, Chinese poetry and other arts such as calligraphy. He received Shiho from his teacher in 1790 who died the following year.
After the death of Kokusen Ryokan decided to return to his village. He found an empty hermitage and named it Gogo-an meaning "one day of rice hermitage". He stayed at Gogo-an till his death. He loved to play with the children in the villages and pick flowers. He loved to drink saké with the farmers. He slept when he wanted to, and go up when he wanted to. He was a loafer. Yet he was pure in heart and unselfish.
Later on around sixty-nine and in ill health, he met the love of his life. She was the nun Teishin. When they met each other it was love at first sight. Ryokan was forty years older than she! In fact, Teishin was twenty-nine when she met Ryokan. She was with he beloved Ryokan when he died on January 6, 1831. His last poem reads:
Life is like a dewdrop,
Empty and fleeting;
My years are gone
And now, quivering and frail,
I must fade away.
Ryokan's beloved Tieshin published a collection of her lover's poems entitled Hasu no tsuyu (Dewdrops on a lotus leaf). Teishin died in 1872.
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