Otagaki Rengetsu: The Heroic and Gentle Buddhist Nun (Part 1)

Honest, simple words 
And an honest, simple heart
Are the sign of one
Who is set upon the path 
To ancient virtue 

I hold this poem close to my heart; in fact, I have put it on a small note and stuck it to my computer. Every time I read it, my world refreshes. Indeed, embracing truth and honesty is our chosen path, and that is something I believe in too. I have never been a person who liked poems, but as time passes, I really enjoy their beauty. In fact, the first time I read this poem, it struck me. I think I fell in love with poems because of Rengetsu. Her simplicity and a sense of love wrap my body every time.

The beautiful poem above was penned by Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875), a Buddhist nun celebrated as one of the preeminent Japanese poets of the 19th century.

Michifumi Isoda in his book about Otagaki Rengetsu in ‘ Unsung Heroes of Old Japan ‘ began with a question: 'What is the source of human gentleness?' Reading her story moved me profoundly with its depiction of her kindness, mental clarity, and the warmth that radiates from her poetry, which I had never experienced before. After discovering her life and works, I could not help but include her story in my newsletter. Perhaps her poems and work may inspire you too, as it did to me.

Photo credit:　http://www.zuzu.bz/ownerblog/2009/02/2_1.html

I wanted to share Rengetsu's life story, especially since female figures in Buddhism, such as nuns, often don't receive as much attention as their male counterparts. This story is written in my own words and I have selected mostly parts that resonate with me. I hope you as well can learn from her resilience, talent and wisdom.

The story takes place in Kyoto in 1788. A very beautiful child was born; it has been said that her father came from a noble family of samurais and her mother was a courtesan. However, there is no confirmed data about her origins, so it remains a mystery. She never met her father or her mother. She was born on the eighth day of the New Year, which in Japan is considered fortunate. The number eight (八) is deemed lucky due to the kanji strokes, as it is associated with good fortune. Not only that, but locals, being superstitious, said she was born at the hour of the tiger, which is also a sign of valor. The person who adopted her was called Yamazaki Tsune'emon, who was a samurai serving at the Chion'in Temple. He was 35 years old at that time and was a sangoku-san, which indicated a low-paid samurai in service. He found a wet nurse nearby the temple where he was serving and arranged the feeding process for the newborn.

Now the question was what to name her? After much thought, he decided to name her 'Nobu,' with the kanji for sincerity. As Nobu grew, so did her skills. For example, she began writing complete sentences at the age of 5, and by the age of 6, she had penned a poem.

They lived in Fukuro-machi in Chion'in, which was home to many writers and artists. For example, Ike no Taiga, a famous master of poetry and calligraphy, lived there, as well as the Confucian scholar Murase Kotei and the elderly man Ueda Akinari who had stiff hands but was always writing good stuff. After learning about Nobu, who wrote waka poetry, he willingly corrected her works, and she received some education from him. Her work improved significantly too.

As a child, she was intelligent with clear-cut eyes, calm, and had fair skin. She was a rare beauty and held a certain type of grace within her. The adoptive father, however, was concerned because a girl was a girl, and he would have hoped for her to be a boy, who could face fewer difficulties in life. He agreed in adopting her but never thought it through carefully; he was also struggling to make ends meet. In these situations, it was normal to abandon the child and leave, but he didn't do it.

When she was 7 years old, a messenger came and delivered a letter from her real father. He wrote: 'What is Nobu doing now? I want to see her!' Afraid of being taken away from her home, she hid herself, and the meeting with her father was postponed. After a short time, another letter came, saying her real father had died. Nobu felt great remorse and said, 'He must have sent the messenger to see me once before he died, and yet I turned him away. What a cruelty!' After this event, Nobu also changed; she now bore a shadow of care from her once innocent features.

At the same time, her adoptive father and her brother changed their surname to Otagaki Banzaemon Teruhisa and served at Chion'in. As Nobu grew, she developed graceful womanly features, and her adoptive father began thinking seriously about her future. He was worried about his son; they were not blood-related, so one possibility was for them to get married. However, after careful consideration, he thought her talents should not go to waste, so he decided to put her into service as a lady-in-waiting at a daimyo's castle and let her be educated on a wider stage. He went to talk to Nobu and told her that her real mother was married and living in Kameyama. He urged her to go into the service of the lord of Kameyama, where she could polish and learn new things and also meet her mother. Nobu agreed to face her new future with the dual hope of meeting her mother and learning new skills.

In Kameyama, she learned dancing, sewing, poetry, and so on. After turning 15, she became very beautiful, and people could not help but notice. She was also very good at fencing and martial arts; she even learned to use the kusarigama (sickle and chain). Some other ladies disagreed with her actions, considering them a 'disgrace.'

Once she returned home for a holiday, an ugly incident occurred. She went with some friends to admire the Kiyomizudera Temple when four drunken men arrived and started to harass the girls. They pleaded to be left alone, but the men grew bolder. One approached, groped her breast, and smelled her neck. At this moment, Nobu demonstrated her great skills, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the ground. All bystanders, both men and women, were stunned by the event. “Although a great beauty, Nobu was also a woman of ability,” was noted in The Collected Works of Nun Rengetsu.

Her adoptive father was amused; he sent her to Kyoto to become more ladylike and elegant, but instead, she returned with judo skills; she was different from other girls. These events made Teruhisa even more anxious to marry Nobu into a good family. After his son died at twenty and his wife passed away, the Otagaki family was at risk of extinction. So, he began to search for a young man to adopt, and word spread. A son of a village headman, known as Naoichi, agreed to join the Otagaki family. He told Nobu to address him as “elder brother”. Unfortunately, they never became friends; there was something dark and gloomy about the adoptive son, who was also slow. Now, no longer a girl but a woman, and with the death of her grandmother leaving no woman to help with household chores, her father urged her to marry Naoichi. Despite her lack of interest, she agreed.

She was now 17 years old and got married. Her beauty, speechless, dressed in bridal finery, felt no joy or hope and no promise of love. She referred to him as a childhood friend, never as a husband. She was forced to marry someone just because he was a descendant of Prince Onome. She was relieved to see her father happy and chose to accept her fate.

However, her life with Naoichi was cruel. He ignored both Nobu and the family business, was a gambler, a drinker, and physically abused Nobu. Once their son was born, Naoichi stayed in the house, but the joy did not last. The baby contracted some infectious disease and died when he was one month old. Now Naoichi became worse. He felt a certain competition with his wife because she came from a prestigious family; her beauty and accomplishments were well-known, and he suffered also from the adoptive cause. His own family abandoned him because he was less intelligent than his other brothers. These reasons made her heart ache more. At the age of 20, she had a girl who died at 2 years old, and then at 22, a girl who died at 4; one after another, all her children died, and Naoichi grew distant. Everyone urged her to end the marriage; she struggled with what to do. Reluctantly, she consented to divorce after her father's wish and asked him to never marry again. Nobu and Naoichi parted ways; not long after the divorce, he died as a broken man.

Half a century later, after becoming a nun, she wrote a letter to Naoichi’s brother with a poem:

Afraid lest
The moon may ask about
Things long past
Tonight I find my eyes
Turning ever downward

Poetry was her solace. At 25, living with her father, she started to study again. In her neighborhood, Ueda Akinari, a great writer, was known to dismiss pupils. He said to her, "If you want to learn poetry, learn from Ozawa Roan." By nature, he was incapable of tolerating dishonesty and never used flattery. Roan used to say, “I cannot tell a lie. I didn’t want to be sick to my stomach, so I didn’t eat any.” He remained poor his whole life due to his character. He wrote a poem to the Mitsui family (later zaibatsu). Once the members of his family heard of his fame, they all went to study with him. They paid him handsomely, but he expelled many of them because when he lay ill in bed, none of them came to see him. Only his impoverished students came calling. So, Roan decided that wealthy magnates lacked human feeling, so he sent this poem to them:

Wealth in this world
Is but the light in a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass
Gleaming while it awaits
The coming breeze

She believed poetry is a "path to making one's heart honest." This was a revelation for Nobu, and she wondered why she had lost her way and become unhappy. She decided to copy Roan’s style and wrote this poem:

Choosing not,
The wide smooth road
People of this road
Tread the rocky path of guile
and so they lose their way.

Thanks to poetry, she began to reflect on her life and her decisions. She wanted to be a good wife and daughter and chose suffering. She thought about why she had not been honest with herself, so she wrote this poem that is the opening of this newsletter. She felt encouraged to express her thoughts in waka (a type of Japanese poetry).

Honest, simple words
And an honest, simple heart
Are the sign of one
Who is set upon the path
To ancient virtue

Now at the age of 29, she was more beautiful than ever. Her father was 65 years old and had lost his power. Since the adoptive son, Naoichi, had died, once again he had to carry all the tasks in the temple, so Nobu felt she needed to help her father.

So she decided… to be continued on part 2.

Reference:

Unsung Heroes of Old Japan- Michifumi Isoda

http://www.zuzu.bz/ownerblog/2009/02/2_1.html

https://rengetsu.org/poetry_db/?ct=clr

https://www.nagaragawagarou.com/visualmuseum/m-rengetsu.html