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GREAT FOOL: ZEN MASTER RYOKAN, POEMS, LETTERS, AND OTHER WRITINGS TRANSLATED WITH ESSAYS BY RYUICHI ABE AND PETER HASKEL Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996 306 pages. Cloth, $49; paper, $26.95
A young Confucian scholar who knew the celebrated poet-priest Ryokan (1758-1831) once ohserved: "Worldly people call him different things-fool, wise-man, idiot, man of the Way. He never flatters the rich and important, nor disdains the poor and humble. He isn't happy when he gets things, or sad when he loses them. He just goes along, natural, relaxed, a man who has transcended the dust of the world."
These qualities still attract a devoted following. "To many Japanese," writes Peter Haskel, "Ryokan,s own daily life, the qualities he...