Ikkyū’s Crazy Cloud Anthology

Then and Now

Abstract

This paper is an adaptation of the talk I gave about my book, Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology, at “The Dharma Ending Age: The Climate Crisis through the Lens of Buddhist Eschatology, Past and Present” conference at the University of British Columbia. My study and selected translations of the Kyōunshū 狂雲集, an anthology of poems in literary Chinese by the medieval Rinzai monk, Ikkyū Sōjun 一休宗純 (1394–1481), was published in 1986, with a revised and expanded edition published in 2022 by Quirin Press. This paper explores the insights and shifts in perception that resulted from the opportunity to revisit the work of my youth at this late point in my life. Connecting to the theme of “The Dharma Ending Age,” specifically the potential wisdom and solace of a Buddhist perspective when contemplating the end of existence on many planes, the focus of the paper will be on the poems from Ikkyū’s later years, which were spent during the catastrophic Ōnin War (1467–1477). Ikkyū’s experience as a refugee watching the world crumble around him are encapsulated in poems that are as poignant and instructive now as ever.