A death poem (辞世の句 jisei no ku) is a poem written near the time of one's own death. It is a tradition for literate people to write one in a number of different cultures, especially in Japan.
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History
Death poems have been written by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Zen monks (the latter writing kanshi (Japanese poetry composed in Chinese), waka or haiku), and by many haiku poets. It was an ancient custom in Japan for literate persons to compose a jisei on their deathbed. One of earliest records of jisei was recited by Prince Ōtsu executed in 686. For examples of death poems, see the articles on the famous haiku poet Bashō, the Japanese Buddhist monk Ryōkan, Ōta Dōkan (builder of Edo Castle), the monk
Some people left their jisei in multiple forms. Prince Ōtsu made both waka and kanshi, Sen no Rikyū made both kanshi and kyōka.
A death poem sometimes took on an aspect of a will, reconciling differences between persons[citation needed].
Content
Poetry has long been a core part of Japanese tradition. Death poems are typically graceful, natural, and emotionally neutral, in accordance with the teachings of Buddhism and Shinto. Excepting the earliest works of this tradition, it has been considered inappropriate to mention death explicitly; rather, metaphorical references such as sunsets, autumn or falling cherry blossom suggest the transience of life.
As a once-in-a-lifetime event, it was common to converse with respected poets before, and sometimes well in advance of a death, to help finish writing a poem[citation needed]. As the time passed, the poem might be rewritten, but this rewriting was almost never mentioned, to keep from tarnishing the deceased person's legacy[citation needed].
Seppuku
In a full ceremonial seppuku (Japanese ritual suicide) one of the elements of the ritual is the writing of a death poem. The poem is written in the tanka style (five units long which are usually composed of five, seven, five, seven, and seven moras). Asano Naganori, the daimyo whose suicide the 47 ronin avenged, wrote a death poem in which commentators[who?] see the immaturity and lack of character that led to him being ordered to commit seppuku in the first place.
In 1970 writer Yukio Mishima and his disciples composed jisei before their abortive takeover of the Ichigaya garrison in Tokyo, where they killed themselves in this ritual manner.[1]
See also
Notes
References
- Blackman, Sushila (1997). Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die: Death Stories of Tibetan, Hindu & Zen Masters. Weatherhill, Inc.: USA, New York, New York. ISBN 0-8348-0391-7
- Hoffmann, Yoel (1986). Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death. Charles E. Tuttle Company: USA, Rutland, Vermont. ISBN 0-8048 1505-4
External links
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