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Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyo. By William R. LaFleur. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003. Pp. ix + 173. Paper $14.95.
A quarter of a century ago William LaFleur published his book on Saigyo, Mirror for the Moon, which the present work, Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyo, thoughtfully and masterfully supersedes. In this connection I may mention the philosopher, Nishida Kitaro, whose Zen no kenkyu (An inquiry into the good) was reprinted in 1936, twenty-five years after its first publication. On that occasion Nishida, deeply moved by the thought that his earliest work was still being read, expressed his sentiment by quoting the last two lines of one of Saigyo's poems:
Toshitakete
mata koyubcshito
omoikiya
Inochi narikeri
Saya no Nakayama
Did I ever imagine
In my advanced age
I should cross once again
This mountain pass of Saya-no-Nakayama?
Ah, it is all thanks to having lived a long life!1
(Saigyo composed this poem on going for the second time to Mutsu, the northern region of Japan, forty-two years after his first visit there.)
As LaFleur notes, a number of important works on Saigyo's life and his times have been published in Japan in the last two decades, which these offer us more complete sketches of his life and allow an appreciation of his poetry to a greater depth. In the first part of the book, "The Life and Times of Saigyo," the author succinctly incorporates many of these findings and relates Saigyo's poems both to historical events and to his personal life experience (pp. 1-70). The second half of the book contains LaFleur's translation of over 150 poems by Saigyo, all of which appear to be taken from his earlier book (pp. 73-152).
LaFleur shows how Saigyo's life (1118-1190) was closely linked to the historical context. The time was fast changing from the insei system (political administration run by the...