I have been meaning to talk about the 100 teaching poems of Rikyu, (Rikyu Hyakushu) and indeed, there are references scattered throughout this blog to them; all you have to do is search on Rikyu, but I will attempt to post the 100 poems with some thoughts on each one, including one or more translations. I will tag them so that when you search on Rikyu Hyakushu, they will come up all together.
Often the first poem quoted is
その道にいらんと思ふ心こそ我身ながらの師匠なりけれ
Sono michi ni iran to omou kokokoro koso wagami nagara no shisho narikere
The very heart which wants to enter the way is the best teacher.
Alternatively,
To have the mind to enter this path is, indeed to have an inherent teacher.
I wrote about this poem previously: Who is the best teacher.
That is not to say that you know more than your sensei, or that you should tell your sensei what and how to teach you, but it is through your own desire to learn that you will come to know tea. No matter how good a teacher you have, you will not learn it if you are not motivated. The way of tea is hard as is any endeavor worth pursuing your whole life. You must have the heart and the mind to pursue the way of tea.
Jun 10, 2011
The hunded poems of Rikyu
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What an inspiring posting. Thanks Margie. I always read your blog posts so I'll follow you through all of the teaching poems. I feel that they might be meaningful also in relation to ikebana studies.
ReplyDeleteNordic lotus, thank you for your comment. I look forward to having more discussions about tea and ikebana.
ReplyDeleteMargie
Thanks - I'm looking forward to your thoughts on more of this collection of teachings ...
ReplyDeleteJohn
John, Thank you for your comment. It will take a while to get all the poems up, and I want to be thoughtful of what I write, but it is a good project for me.
ReplyDeleteMargie
I just found your blog. It is very informative; thank you! I study chado in Boston at a new (~40 years old) school started by a Japanese artist http://www.kajiasostudio.com/webroot/tea.cfm
ReplyDeleteI was wondering, are the Rikyu Hyakushu published in English translation in any book or magazine that you know of? Or are you translating them all yourself from Japanese? Thank you.
Dear Tea Apprentice,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading the blog and commenting. There are a couple of English translations of the poems. I have about 3 different ones, and I am also taking a form of translation from my notes from Kyoto when I studied at the Urasenke headquarters. I am combining all of them and trying to comment on them as they relate to my own study.
A recent translation of the poems came out, but there wasn't any commentary so some of them may or may not make sense to you. The book is titled: Sen Genshitsu Talks About The Enjoyment of Tea, ISBN 4-473-03296-5.
I bought this book -- thank you so much for telling me about it! The poems are wonderful -- profound, practical, deep and beautiful all together.
DeleteOk, aside from the book, I can only find these poems in 1 webpage on line. Sadly it's not a complete translation. I have found a few people reference them on a few websites like this but I can not find it on line fully. Will your translation be out any time soon? I would really like to read them all with out dropping $80 on the book, since I can't afford it.
ReplyDeleteNoah,
DeleteThank you for your comment. It is a rather large endeavor to translate the 100 poems. I am not surprised that you cannot find all of them online. I don't speak Japanese, so my work to make sense of them myself before I post them will most likely take some time since I don't work on it everyday. The book referenced above has a translation into English that is easier to understand than others that I have come across. If you cannot afford the book, try this link. http://www.teadogu.com/100poofsen.html