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was a Japanese poet.事実> としての宗教性の恢復へ : 山尾三省と交響するものがたり ("A return to nature : The life history of Mr. Sansei YAMAO")
''International cultural studies'', Vol. 10 (2004-12-25), pp. 195-220, Yokohama City University, .
Sansei Yamo was born in
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
in 1938. He studied western philosophy at
Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...
, but dropped out before graduation. In the latter half of the 1960s, he and his companions
Nanao Sakaki Nanao Sakaki (1923 – December 22, 2008) was a Japanese poet, author of ''Bellyfulls'' and leading personality of ''The Tribe''. He was born to a large family in Kagoshima Prefecture,Halper 1991, pg. 95 and raised by parents who ran an indigo ...
and Tetsuo Nagasawa started a commune called ''Buzoku'' (), with an aim to change society. In 1973, he went on a
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
to
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
with his family for a year. Upon returning to Japan, he moved with his family in 1977 to a ghost village on Yaku-Shima, an island located in the south of Japan, famous for the Japanese Joumon cedar, which lives for several thousand years. He began to build a village at Shirakawa mountain. He wrote poetry and prose, and farmed his field there until his death. He visited his old friend poet
Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...
in the spring of 1997 at Snyder's house in the
Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...
. In 1966 Sansei Yamao had initially met Snyder, who travelled to Japan to receive his first Zen training in
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
. At that time, Sansei Yamao and Gary Snyder traversed the Ominesan mountain range in Nara, which is known as the
Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...
mountain, together for a week. After Snyder went back to the United States, while Sansei went to India and then subsequently moved to Yaku-Shima, the two had not been in contact with each other. Therefore, when Sansei Yamao met Gary Snyder again in 1997, he was surprised to learn that Snyder's recent emphasis was
bioregionalism Bioregionalism is a philosophy that suggests that political, cultural, and economic systems are more sustainable and just if they are organized around naturally defined areas called '' bioregions'' (similar to ''ecoregions''). Bioregions are d ...
, because he, too, had been thinking about very similar things for 20 years. He said, "The earth is just a region, a region is just the earth." The year following their second meeting, "聖なる地球のつどいかな" (''Seinaru chikyu no tudoi kana'') was published in Japan (ed. 山里勝己 Katsunori Yamazato, 山と渓谷社 Yama to keikokusha, 1998), a collection of their dialogues held in the Sierra Nevada. Sansei Yamao died on 28 August 2001 at his home on the island of
Yakushima is one of the Ōsumi Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, has a population of 13,178. It is accessible by hydrofoil ferry, car ferry, or by air to Yakushima Airport. Administratively, the island consists of the town ...
.


Selected bibliography

*''Seirojin'' (1981) *''No no michi - essays about
Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social ...
'' (1983) *''Jomonsugi no kokage nite'' (1985) *''Birobaboshi no shita de'' (1993) *''Seinaru chikyu no tudoi kana'' (1998), collection of dialogues with Gary Snyder *''Koko de kurasu tanoshimi'' (1999), collection of essays *''Animism to iu kibo'' (2000), 5 days of lectures at the University of the Ryukyus *''Kami o yonda Issa no haiku - kibo to shite no animizumu'' (2000) *''Minami no hikari no naka de'' (2002) *''Inori / prayer'' (2002) *Sansei Yamao Poetry Works (translated into English) "Make the fire," "Mitto-kun and a cloud," "A Moonlit Night," "Dawn Cafe Au Leit," "At the Mountain," "Sea," "Wind"
"Index page"
''happano.org'' SINGLE BLISS: Yamao Sansei Translations by Scott Watson. Gardnerville, NV. Country Valley Press. 2007. "After Rain." Translated by Scott Watson. Atlanta, GA. ''
Atlanta Review ''Atlanta Review'' is an international poetry journal based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded by Daniel Veach in 1994 and is published twice a year. Karen Head of the Georgia Institute of Technology became editor in 2016. The jo ...
''. Spring/Summer 2002, p. 52. "An Island of Life." Yamao Sansei translations by Scott Watson. Sendai, Japan. The Tohoku Gakuin University Review, No.139. November 2004, pp. 91 ~ 112.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamao, Sansei 1938 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Japanese poets Writers from Tokyo Waseda University alumni