The Rhetoric of Death and Discipleship in Premodern Japan

Socho's Death of Sogi and Kikaku's Death of Master Basho

H. Mack Horton

• Publisher: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781557291851
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

The Death of Sogi(Sogi shuenki, 1502), by Socho, and The Death of Master Basho (Basho-o shuenki, 1694), by Kikaku, are among the most important death accounts in the premodern Japanese literary corpus. Written by preeminent disciples of the poets, these accounts provide vital information about the careers of two of Japan's most iconic literary figures and their circles of disciples. In Buddhist terms, they bear witness to the conviction that poetry itself can constitute a form of prayer that contributes to the repose and rebirth of the deceased.

This book provides annotated translations of both memorials, Socho's account of Sogi's death constituting an upper verse to which Kikaku linked his lower verse describing the death of Basho.  They are preceded here by an introduction that outlines how these thanatographies served the departed and the bereaved—death and discipleship—and how both memorials were subjectively fashioned in response to venerable literary precedents and to new standards of taste.  Color images of paintings of the masters and their disciples add to the presentation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Notes to this edition
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction to the Translations
• The Death of Sogi
• The Death of Master Basho
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index to the Poems
• General Index and Character Glossary
• Back Cover