(Image: from the 1996 comic by Hisashi Sakaguchi)
So, what can be seen in modern Japan today. In its contemporary reflection, still remains a shadow of the past. If you can imagine, before it was able to centralize its government and economy, assisted by the West in the 1800s – Japan was fiercely a feudalistic country, which was constantly at war with itself, isolated and insular within its state affairs, when the first Ch'an Masters arrived in Japan in the 10th and 11th Centuries they brought Zen with them, however it was the Rinzai school founded by formidable Zen Master Linji Yixuan (Jpn: Rinzai Gigen) in China in 8th Century. That appealed to the Japanese Shogun. And what is a fascinating aspect of Japan and its isolation, that at times, particularly when it craved Chinese culture in the 11th and 12th Century, - and why it embraced the teachings of Rinzai with fervor. It held something, in my opinion, that the Japanese, particularly the Shogunate rulers liked at the time, that it could be molded in a form of Zen that may not necessary revere to its Chinese roots. And when Japan began to shut its boarders once again to the world. With Zen Buddhism set in place, it is the Zen rebels like Ikkyū Sōjun, who witnessed how it became corrupted and watered down, even the original teachings of Rinzai (Linji), that, Ikkyu embraced with zeal, as for him. When Rinzai said “If you meet a buddha, kill him.” it is that complete removal of attachment Nanimono ni mo torawarezu ("Attached to nothing") – which means also a removal from state sanctioned Zen being authorized as a decree. It was to Ikkyū, a watering down of what Rinzai taught, that Zen essentially holds no attachment to government, icons, idols, the self and even nature. Yet, in cryptical sense, Ikkyū, following his own iconoclastic ways, reminded the monks and Masters of the original teachers of Rinzai which in turn was reaffirming the linage and connection to the first Chinese patriarchs of Zen Buddhism. A reminder to the Japanese Imperial control that Zen, although it comes from a beginning – a source, the Zen practitioner, monk or Master will eventually go to be part of the Void. Therefor it cannot be connected to a sanctioned power. Which, we know is always temporary, as it rises and falls. There is no certainty taught. And this is where Ikkyū's Zen was pure in its form and incorruptible, as it erodes all of its dualities. That enlightenment and awareness of the Buddha nature can be found in all manifestations and aspects (the sanctity and sinfulness) of life. Not inscribed, hypocritically, by a well paid Zen Priest favored by the Shogun's. Ikkyū, with a desire to unsettle the Zen establishment, begins to added sex to the mix. To shake up and embrace more anarchic perspectives to what he believed has been missed in Zen – revering the feminine and her sexuality as an explicit mannerism.
“Once while she was cooking I kneeled put my head between her warm dark legs up her skirt kissed and licked and sucked her until she came”
It is unclear if Ikkyū Sōjun deliberately attached some of the esoteric (Vajrayana) Buddhist aspects, more so the tantric, from a Western understanding, utilizing the sexuality (or sexual yoga) being a form for attaining enlightenment. As it is not really stated in his history if there was a direct link. And also, Zen, being an offshoot from Mahayana sutra, simplified a development of mediation as the main key of ridding attachment to the self. That in turn unraveled a lot of the weaved aspects of Esoteric Buddhism and the complex sutras. Zen, in a superior sense taught silent illumination and the mental exercise of the koans – as looking inward toward the Buddha nature. However the Zen monks still chanted and reciting various aspects of the sutras, more so the Lankavatra - and for Ikkyū, rebelling further away from traditionalist aspects of Buddhism. Became more of an urgency to sexuality, at least for him, was needed to reveal the true meaning of enlightenment.
“I Love Taking My New Girl Blind Mori On A Spring Picnic, I Remember One Quiet Afternoon She Fished Out My Cock”
“And the nights inside you rocking smelling the odor of your thighs is everything”
“At the bath she bathed scrubbing her face and body at the bath I splashed water on myself enjoying
her body”
Ikkyū was a prolific writer, within the context of traditional four line configurations of Japanese text. A lot these short poems, centered around his wanderings, which of course at the time of facing isolation and disconnected as a hermit monk. He was still under metal distress, from his past that resonated a quarrel of events which haunted him as phantoms. To only be reconciled within the Zen mindset, more so the teachings of Rinzai (Linji), to which Ikkyū held high regard. He bridged the duality, between suffering and bliss. Able to understand the hardship, pain, whilst witnessing the devastation that had occurred around him during a very significant period in Japanese history; death, pain and suffering. That as taught by Zen must be seen as a fleeting moment, but for Ikkyū there was a paradox. Why also deny the fleeting moments of pleasure? What may sound crude as far as a Zen monk describing his sexual exploits, it held a meaning that through what was witnessed during his travels, the death and misery from Tsunamis, famine and wars, was the acceptance and also rejecting of human attachment to death. Sex, intrinsically under Vajrayana and Tantric Buddhism sees the two linked: that Sex and death are both connected as a symbolism of life and, within Karmic gestalt, rebirth. To attain Nirvana, to assist in reaching enlightenment within a lifetime. For Ikkyū the greatest pleasure could only be shared between a woman. Thus, he brought the feminine aspect of sex into a significance, clearly stated in his poems of sex and what he saw, was revering the female form and her own unique sexuality. Ikkyū helped, with many of his followers towards the end of his life, utilized the Ukiyo-e “fleeting world” or “sad world” red light districts of Japan as a focal point, more so the images from the Shunga. The classic wood engraved prints, showing sexual images, lesbianism, female genitalia and masturbation. Very rare at a time when the female, was seen as no more than a second class citizen, used in brothels and her sexuality hidden away as Shogun courtesans under Samurai guard. Ikkyū, challenged this as a Zen monk, so, in turn this created the bases for identifying with the female and her sexuality and it continued throughout his life.
In combination to the freedom of sexuality that Ikkyū believed that Zen should represent, he also fused the idealism of death, namely the skeleton as a symbol that all life eventually is broken down to it's original form. Such is Ikkyū's famous sketches and poems representing the Skeletons.
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Authored by Adrian Glass (2018)
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