I lived from 1758-1831.
I was from Japan, and am in the Asian category.
Taigu Ryokan was born in the Echigo (now Nigata) Province of northern Japan in 1785. The son of the village headman -- a successful merchant and haiku poet of some note -- Ryokan was schooled in Japanese and Chinese literature as well as religion and calligraphy.
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When he was eighteen years old Ryokan met the Zen Master Kokusen and accompanied him to the Entsu-Ji temple in Tamashima where he became a Buddhist monk. Ryokan excelled at his monastic studies and was offered the position of head of the monastery when Kokusen died. But he rejected both the position and the title of Master, electing to instead wander the countryside of Japan, begging and writing poetry. He eventually moved into a hermitage (called Gogo-an or 'Five Measures of Rice') at the foot of Mt. Kugami where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Picture Source - nonduality.com
Popular poetry
I watch people in the world
Throw away their lives lusting after things,
15 lines, 15 comments
at dusk
i often climb
9 lines, 5 comments
An old grave hidden away at the foot of a deserted hill,
Overrun with rank weeds growing unchecked year after year;
15 lines, 6 comments
My legacy --
What will it be?
5 lines, 2 comments
Blending with the wind,
Snow falls;
11 lines, 2 comments
This treasure was discovered in a bamboo thicket --
I washed the bowl in a spring and then mended it.
5 lines, 8 comments
“When, when?” I sighed.
The one I longed for
6 lines, 2 comments
Wild roses,
Plucked from fields
4 lines, 1 comment
When I was a lad,
I sauntered about town as a gay blade,
8 lines, 2 comments
In a dilapidated three-room hut
I’ve grown old and tired;
11 lines, 1 comment
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