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Why Did Saigyo Become A Monk? An Archeology Of The Reception Of Saigyo's Shukke, Jack C. Stoneman

Faculty Publications

Though it is still impossible to know the exact reasons why the samurai and poet Saigyō西行 (1118-1190) became a Buddhist monk in the winter of 1140, there is value in asking the question one more time--not in an effort to find a definitive answer, but to see what answers have been offered and what those answers tell us about the reception of his poetry and persona. His decision to become a monk remains the great mystery of his life, and a central focus of both popular imagination and scholarly inquiry over the last eight centuries. In the process of attempting …