Ikkyū Sōjun

Ikkyū Sōjun (1394-1481) was a Japanese Zen monk, poet and one of the most eccentric figures of the Ashikaga period. He wrote mostly in Chinese, and his influence reaches poetry, the tea ceremony and the popular image of Zen. He matters because of his defiant way of understanding spiritual practice.

He was born in a small suburb of Kyoto. According to tradition he was the illegitimate son of Emperor Go-Komatsu, though this is not confirmed. After being separated from his mother he was raised by servants and, at the age of five, entered the Ankoku-ji temple, where he studied Chinese language and culture, an essential part of the Zen curriculum of the time.

As a young man he moved between several temples in search of a teacher who could satisfy him. With Ken'o, at Saikin-ji, he found demanding instruction, but after Ken'o's death around 1414 he tried to drown himself in Lake Biwa. Later, under Kaso at Zenko-an, he is said to have reached enlightenment around 1420, prompted by the cry of a crow. He refused the inka, the document certifying his realization, and reportedly burned it.

His rivalry with Yoso, a senior fellow student, grew tense. Kaso eventually named Yoso his dharma heir, and Ikkyū left the temple to live as a wanderer for many years, surrounded by artists and poets and with the blind singer Mori at his side. His criticism of formalism and ritual dependence went hand in hand with a defence of the body and desire as part of spiritual life.

Decades later, after the Ōnin War, he was appointed abbot of Daitoku-ji, a post he accepted reluctantly. His legacy is ambiguous: some regard him as a heretic, others as a saint. In Japanese popular culture he became a mischievous, clever figure, the subject of many stories and of a 1970s animated series.