It may be a foolish way of life,
I think people like that are more likely to be loved.

Affectionately known to the common people as “Ikkyu-san,” and famous for his witty anime tales, Ikkyu Sojun was a Zen monk active during the Muromachi period who is also known for his unconventional “wind-crazy” anecdotes.
Since his debut with “Ukita’s Abandoned Bride,” Kinoshita Masateru has breathed new life into historical fiction with works such as “The Greatest Glib-mouthed Man in the World” and “At the End of the Lonely Sword.” This time, he tackles the turbulent life of Ikkyu Sojun, an unusual monk steeped in legends. The book depicts in detail the secrets of his birth, the power struggle between the shogunate and the imperial court, his rebellion against the corruption of Zen Buddhism, and his lifelong pursuit of Zen.
Why did Kinoshita choose to depict Ikkyu Sojun? We asked him about the behind-the-scenes of the work.

Interviewer and editor: Kenji Takazawa / Photographer: Satoko Tsuyuki

It was a hint
A legendary comedian and a popular fighter

— “Godo Ikkyu” is the story of the Zen monk Ikkyu Sojun, but it is also a fascinating novel about Zen.

There is a book about Ikkyu written by Tsutomu Mizukami, who spent his childhood in a Zen temple. It may be rare to see something written by someone like me who knows nothing about Zen.

–Why did you decide to write “Gudo Ikkyu”?

After “Ekin, Painting the Darkness”, we had a meeting to decide what to serialize in “Subaru Novels”, and I thought I wanted to write about someone who was a little erotic and unconstrained by morals, like “Ekin”. Ikkyu-san was famous for his relationships with women, and he has a free-spirited side to him, similar to the genius painter Ekin (Hirose Kinzo), so I proposed to write about Ikkyu-san.

— I imagine that you researched Ikkyu after you decided to write this book. Has your image of Ikkyu changed?

He was more avant-garde than I had expected – I’m not sure if that’s the right word – but I thought he was an incredible person.
However, just reading the documents didn’t really give me a good idea of ​​what kind of person he was. In particular, the relationship between Ikkyu and Yosou was a mystery.

When Ikkyu went to train at a Zen temple, Yoso appeared before him and was like a light shining a light on the way in the corrupt world of Zen Buddhism. However, as soon as Ikkyu became a monk, he began to violently oppose and attack Yoso.

That’s right. So at first, I couldn’t understand Ikkyu’s feelings at all. Even when I read history books, Ikkyu wrote some really nasty things about Yoso. He hurled insults at him that would be considered taboo today. So, what about Yoso? He said that Ikkyu was a madman, and that it wasn’t bad for him to do crazy things like that. He did say some minor complaints, like “He doesn’t practice koan (Zen riddles) very much.”
I thought maybe I couldn’t understand it because I didn’t have enough knowledge of Zen, so I interviewed several people who were researching Ikkyu, and the words of one of them gave me a hint.
“If we were to compare Ikkyu and Yosou to comedic comedians, they would be like the “Yasukiyo”.”
Although they didn’t get along, they shared the same goal of making the audience laugh. When I heard that, I felt like I finally understood what kind of person Ikkyu was.

–You mean “YasuKiyo”? Yokoyama Yasushi and Nishikawa Kiyoshi. They were a comedy duo that created an era. Ikkyu was the strong funny guy, while Yosou was the common sense Kiyoshi who responded with the tsukkomi. They were contrasting figures, but they may have agreed on what “laughter” is.

There was another pair of people I used as inspiration for the relationship between Ikkyu and Yosou. Around the middle of the story, when I was wondering what to do when Ikkyu and Yosou started to clash, I was inspired by a martial artist. Do you know Ren Hiramoto?

— I know him. He’s a young mixed martial arts fighter. He became famous in K-1 and now he’s fighting in RIZIN.

At first, Ren Hiramoto mentioned fellow mixed martial artist Mikuru Asakura as a fighter he respected. Then at some point, he started provoking him on social media. “Oh, I see, I guess Ikkyu is like that too.”
In order to surpass your favorite fighter, you need not only respect him, but also the resolve to fight and win, even if it means criticizing him. Zen also has the saying “Kill Buddha, kill ancestor,” and there is a teaching like “Kill your master.”
Maybe Ikkyu didn’t really hate Yosou, but rather behaved that way in order to get over him. Maybe Ikkyu thought that he wouldn’t be able to grow as a Zen monk if he didn’t.
Among the Zen monks and researchers I spoke to, two said, “I had a lot of fights with my teacher.” When I asked them, “What? Why?”, they said, “No, it was nothing serious. But I was fighting a lot with my teacher because I didn’t understand how I felt.”
Maybe it’s because our relationships are so close, but the more we like someone, the more we hate them. It’s true that the closer you are to someone, the more difficult it is to forgive even the smallest of things.

— Mastering the path does not mean following someone and walking just behind them, but rather you have to go beyond them.

Yes. They say that there is a line between shu-ha-ri and shu-ha-ri, and at some point a disciple must break away from his master’s teachings. I think Ikkyu was the one who did this in the most avant-garde way.

The conflict between mother and child continues from her debut work

— “Gudo Ikkyu” begins with Ikkyu’s childhood. The first chapter, “Sengikumaru,” describes his training at a Zen temple, the secret of his birth, and his feelings for his mother. I’m from the generation that watched the anime “Ikkyu-san,” so I felt like I was seeing the other side of Ikkyu-san’s feelings for his mother.

Ikkyu’s mother was a court lady from the Southern Court, and it is said that Ikkyu was born to her and the Emperor of the Northern Court. Ikkyu was separated from his mother early on and sent to a Zen temple, so he doesn’t know who his father is. In the anime, his mother was a kind person, but the mother I wrote was not just that.

— She has a strong desire for her son to succeed at the Zen temple. Ikkyu wants to fulfill that wish. However, the world of Zen Buddhism at Daitokuji and the Five Mountains is corrupt, and Ikkyu has doubts about succeeding there. Even as an adult, the conflict with his mother remains one of the central themes of the story.

The conflict between mother and child may be something I’ve been used to writing. In my debut novel, “Ukita’s Abandoned Bride,” I wrote the mother as a pretty unpleasant character.
I wonder why. Maybe I think of my mother as a special person. When I was writing about Ikkyu’s mother, I was remembering the time of “Ukita’s abandoned bride.”
I don’t have any particular ill feelings towards my mother, but some of my acquaintances and friends had trouble with their parents. I knew from a young age that there were people who had hardships in their relationships with their parents, so maybe I was subconsciously drawn into the story.

— The character of Akamatsu Echigo no Kami (Mochisada), whom Ikkyu meets as a boy, is also quite striking. He knows that Ikkyu is an illegitimate son and tries to use him in a power struggle.

He’s a psychopathic villain. I like that kind of villain. In real life, he was a beautiful man with an interesting story behind him. Just when he was set to become the governor of Harima Province, he was suspected of having an affair with the Shogun’s concubine. I like people like that who are single-minded about their own desires.
Most people can’t live like that, and have to make compromises. I think the good thing about novels is that they allow you to do things you can’t do yourself. It’s fun to write about villains who just go after their desires.