This essay retrieves the meaning and importance of renga, or linking poetry. Long forgotten, even in Japan, it was the form of which the great Bashō was the mater (not haiku as is now believed). When examining renga poetry, one can see that it is based not on authorial vision, but rather the trans-subjective mood that guides the different links made by the various poets who collaborate in the “rolling” of a renga. The radical implications of this (...) form for both aesthetics and ethics will be considered. (shrink)

This paper aims to develop Nishida Kitarō’s “logic of place” into an “aesthetics of place.” While brilliantly fusing the Buddhist traditions of Japan with Western philosophy, in his later years, Nishida came up with his own unique philosophy, a “monadology with the concept of substance.” This is a concept anchored in mu or “emptiness.” From this standpoint, how is the individual understood and how does society take shape? The answers to these questions are fundamental keys to understanding Japanese philosophy. In (...) Japan, the individual in Japan is not locked up in itself, but it is possible for the “substantial ego” to vanish and be replaced by the ““I as an event.” Through a discussion of the “place” where the activities of the traditional poetic forms of renku and renga are performed, an attempt is made to develop an aesthetic approach to those questions. (shrink)

We are particularly interested in how poetry and phenomenological research come together to increase understanding of human phenomena. We are further interested in how these more aesthetic possibilities of understanding can occur within a community context, that is the possibility of a process in which understanding is shared through an ongoing process of participation. In this way phenomenologically-oriented understandings may meaningfully speak of that which is common between us as well as that which may be uniquely lived for each of (...) us in terms of its individual context and nuance. In this paper we reflect on a process by which we engaged with participants to poetically re-present a description of an experiential phenomenon. As part of this process we offered an evocative description of a health care scenario, and facilitated collectively created ‘embodied responses’ inspired by the interactive form of Japanese Renga. We ask the question: “What kind of phenomenology is this?” Through so doing we attempt to address the theme of this special issue, namely, a focus on a wide embrace of the notion of evidence. We do this by drawing out the epistemological implications of a phenomenological approach that attends to the ‘awakening of presences’ in embodied and linguistic ways. In this pursuit we are assisted by the writings of Gendlin, Gadamer, Levinas and Shotter. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology , Volume 12, Special Edition July 2012. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Onitsura's Makoto and the Daoist Concept of the NaturalPeipei QiuIn haikai history, Uejima Onitsura (1661-1738) is famous for the following statement concerning the nature of comic linked verse: "Without makoto, there would be no haikai."1 The two Japanese terms used in this statement, haikai and makoto, present an obvious semantic conflict. Makoto in Japanese basically means "truth," "faithfulness," and "genuineness."2haikai, on the other hand, literally means "facetiousness" or "humor." (...) The term is used to refer to facetious poems in Japan since the first imperial poetic anthology, the Kokin wakashū (905). When haikai no renga (comic linked verse) became a popular genre during the later medieval and early Edo periods, it was conceived basically as a playful and facetious poem. By saying that "without makoto there would be no haikai," Onitsura declared a revolutionary change in the nature of the comic linked verse, a reform carried out by the joint effort of a number of haikai poets during the last two decades of the seventeenth century. Before this change took place, haikai had been characterized as a poem of "free exaggerations" and "the most deluding falsehoods."3 The shift of the critical emphasis from falsehood to truthfulness transformed the genre from an entertaining pastime to a serious literary form.An important notion in haikai poetics, Onitsura's makoto has garnered wide scholarly attention. But, because of the lack of a clear definition by the author himself, over the years scholars have been debating the precise meaning of Onitsura's makoto and trying to discover its derivation through various sources. The filiation of makoto has been traced to Zen Buddhist doctrine,4 traditional waka poetics,5 and Confucian teaching.6 The assumption that Onitsura's makoto originates in Zen doctrine is based on the preface that Onitsura wrote to Haidō Enō roku (The Way of haikai: Notes on Huineng's teaching) (1680). The preface begins with the following lines:Printed poetry books are not trees; the paper on which a poem is written also has no stand. "From the beginning not a thing is"—this is the key to my haikai.7Peculiar at first glance, these lines are derived from the legendary gatha of Huineng (Enō), the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. Huineng's gatha appears in section 8 of Liuzu fabao tanjing (The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch):Bodhi originally has no tree,The mirror also has no stand.From the beginning not a thing is,Where is there room for dust?8 [End Page 232]The third line of the verse, "From the beginning not a thing is", is regarded by some scholars, especially some Japanese writers, as the most important doctrine Huineng contributed to Zen Buddhism.9 It is believed that the focus on the original nothingness, or original purity, of Buddha nature distinguishes Huineng's doctrine of sudden enlightenment from those of his predecessors. Okada argues that the Zen notion of original nothingness was the major source that awakened Onitsura to the necessity of haikai reform and led him to the conclusion that "without makoto there would be no haikai."10Okada's study is enlightening in examining Onitsura's early views of poetry. It is not, however, very convincing to say that this Zen verse alone was responsible for the formation of Onitsura's makoto. For one thing, the poet's own writings suggest that Onitsura realized the significance of Huineng's words after he had become aware of the true way of haikai. In the same preface cited above, Onitsura writes:Only after I became awakened to the true way of haikai did I begin to understand the significance of Master Huineng's words "not a thing is." I see [that] many poets in the haikai circles nowadays have ignored the true way of haikai while arguing endlessly over the old and new styles. I feel sorry for them.11It is clear from Onitsura's words here that he borrowed the Zen term mainly to criticize the mannerism among the haikai poets of his time. He was calling for the haikai poets to put aside their prejudice about the stylistic differences and open their minds... (shrink)

Alterity, the difference that being-other makes, is not an overt theme in the writing of Ueda Shizuteru, and yet by bringing alterity to the fore we are able to connect and examine several themes that Ueda does engage explicitly. It will turn out that several models of alterity are discernable in Ueda’s philosophy, and their common ground opens a mode of being-other that offers an alternative to dominant models of irreducible difference. Ueda’s philosophy of language suggests four alternative configurations that (...) increasingly allow for the dual emergence of authentic otherness and selfhood. Those configurations are intimated in his interpretations of Nishida’s pure experience, of the interplay of language and silence, of a dialogue envisioned in a Zen oxherding picture, and of the poetic form known as linked verse, which best models how discrete beings help create a world in common. (shrink)