Lonely At The Top: Minamoto no Sanetomo

I’m still keeping up with the Japanese historical drama the Thirteen Lords of Kamakura, discussed here, which is based primarily on the Azuma Kagami (吾妻鏡) a historical text about the period, and a fascinating look at how the Shogunate, or samurai military government, of the Kamakura Period rose and fell.

The rise of the Kamakura Shogunate began with the climactic battle between the Heiki (Taira) clan and the Genji (Minamoto). In order to topple their rivals, the Genji had to enlist a complex web of alliances with other samurai clans in the eastern regions of Japan, with Kamakura as their capitol, most crucially the Hojo Clan (the source of the Triforce in the Legend of Zelda series). This alliance overwhelmed the Heike and led to downfall.

However, once the Heike were wiped out, and the old Imperial political order ended, the various clans including the Minamoto themselves turned on one another to sort out who the Shogun would be, and would be pulling the strings behind the throne. The first Shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, turned on his half brothers and killed them one by one using flimsy legal pretexts, while his firstborn son Yoriie, the second Shogun, vied with his council (the aforementioned 13 Lords above) until he was driven into permanent exile. Hojo Masako, the so-called “Warlord Nun” contended with her father Hojo Tokimasa when he tried to assert a dominant hand, and had him exiled too. As all this was going on, the various allied clans took sides with members of the Hojo and Minamoto. Generation after generation, people kept stabbing each other in the back in order to advance their faction in the new military government.

Sanetomo in court clothing, painting by the priest Goshin. Photo courtesy of Hannah, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This left Yoritomo’s younger son, Minamoto no Sanetomo (源実朝, 1192 – 1219), to assume the position as Shogun, the 3rd in line. Sanetomo was doomed from the beginning.

Sanetomo was a puppet of his maternal family, the Hojo Clan, who surrounded him as advisors and ministers, but also carried out the real functions of government. Sanetomo knew from early on that he was essentially a figurehead, and could easily be toppled by whatever faction wanted to replace him with a more amenable candidate for Shogun. It is said that Sanetomo retreated into drinking and composing poetry, of which one of them is included in the Hyakunin Isshu anthology:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation by Joshua Mostow
世の中は	Yo no naka wa	If only this world
つねにもがもな	Tsune ni mo ga mo na	could always remain the same!
なぎさこぐ	Nagisa kogu	The sight of them towing
あまの小舟の	Ama no obune no	the small boats of the fishermen who row in the tide
綱手かなしも	Tsuna de kanashi mo	is touching indeed!

Also posted in the other blog…

Sanetomo evidentially composed the poem after watching some fishermen at work on the shore, envying their simple lives in contrast to the constant political infighting and manipulation that surrounded his.

Sadly, things never got better.

Sanetomo’s life ended at the age of 28, when he was assassinated by his nephew at the footsteps of the famous Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (visual tour here) in Kamakura. It is said his nephew hid behind the ginkgo tree there, and as Sanetomo descended the steps, leapt out and ran him through with a sword.

The gingko tree where Sanetomo’s assassin hid is shown here on the left. In 2010, the tree now many hundreds of years old, fell over in a powerful wind storm, and has been partially rehabilitated from a shoot. No machine-readable author provided. Abrahami assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Further, the Kamakura Shogunate only spiraled further. With Sanetomo’s death, the Minamoto line ended, and the Hojo Clan promoted various relations of the Minamoto (often drawn from the Fujiwara clan) as the subsequent Shoguns. Each one of these shoguns was simply another figurehead, while the Hojo tightened their grip on power as “regents”. Once Hojo Masako died, there was no one left savvy enough to hold it together, and the Mongol invasions further drained away any remaining resources until the government was finally toppled by a rival warlord.

Sanetomo’s life, the ignominious circumstances that surrounded his family (both his father’s line and his mother’s family’s scheming) ensured that even with the powerful title of Sei-i Taishōgun (征夷大将軍, “Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians”) he lived alone and apart from everyone, constantly in fear of his life, and powerless to do anything about it.

Korean Fan Poem

I don’t get to talk about Korean culture and literature every often, but a few years back I had a pretty hard-core KPop phase (SNSD, 2NE1, Brown Eyed Girls, etc). Coincidentally, one of my friends is Korean, one time she sent me this cool fan one time during her last trip home:

If you look carefully, the fan has a poem written on it that mixes Korean hangeul script and Chinese characters:

I got curious and did some investigating on what this poem was, translations, etc., and it turns out that this is a famous poem in Korea by Yi Jo-Nyeon (이조년, 李兆年, 1269∼1343) and utilizes a kind of popular poetic form called a sijo, a popular form of Korean poetry comprising of three lines of verse. Sadly, there is no English article about him on Wikipedia, but there is one in Korean.

Also, I found a translation here.

So, without further ado, here’s the poem on the fan, with the original text (with hangeul in parantheses, just like the fan), pronunciation and translation:

Original Text (hangeul pronunciation in parentheses)	Romanization	Translation
梨花(이화)에 月白(월백)하고 銀漢(은한)이 三更(삼경)인 제	I-hwa e weol-baek hago eun-han i sam-gyeong inje	Pear flowers illume moon-white, a galaxy in midnight
一枝春心(일지춘심)을 子規(자규)야 알랴 마난	Ilji chunshim eul jagyu ya alrya manan	The sentiments of spring on that branch, does the cuckoo know?
多情(다정)도 病(병)인양 하여 잠 못 들어 하노라	Dajeong do byeong inyang hayeo jam mot deuleo hanora	I sleep fitfully for this sickness, this tenderness of heart.

Translation by Jungmin Bae at https://cagibilit.com/in-translation-pear-flowers-illume-moon-white/

Pretty nice poem actually, and now you know some famous Korean poetry!

The Original Poet-Monk: Saigyo Hoshi

Long before people like Basho or Yosa Buson, in Japan there lived a man named Saigyō Hōshi (西行法師, 1118 – 1190), who lived a privileged life in the Heian-period Court, but then threw it aside to become a prolific poet while living an ascetic life as a Buddhist monk.

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
しほりせで	Shiori sede	Leaving no trace
なを山ふかく	Nao yama fukaku	Once again into the mountains’ depths
わけいらん	Wake iran	I’ll make my way;
うきこときかぬ	Uki koto kikanu	Not to hear the world’s pains–
所ありやと	Tokoro ari to ya	I wonder, is there such a place?

Translation and poem here.

Saigyo began his life as Satō Norikiyo (佐藤義清), serving Emperor Toba as part of the elite palace guard called the hokumen no bushi (北面の武士, lit. “Northern-facing samurai”). Further, he earned a reputation for both horseback archery (流鏑馬, yabusamé) and Heian-style kickball (蹴鞠, kemari), and had a wife and kids among the Heian aristocracy.

However, Norikiyo lived during a time when the upper levels of the Imperial Court were embroiled in nasty power struggles, and everyone serving under them was being dragged into it. Seeing that the Court was a kind of golden sham, Norikiyo abruptly threw away his privileged life, left his family, and took up the life as a wandering ascetic. Eventually he made his way to Mount Koya, home of the esoteric Shingon sect, and underwent training, with the ordination name Saigyō.

Saigyō Hōshi as depicted in the Hyakunin Isshu card game

Not long after Saigyo had left the Imperial Court, his worst fears came true as members of the Imperial family engaged in a short-lived war amongst factions known as the Hōgen Rebellion in 1156. Emperor Sutoku was on the losing side of this rebellion and was later exiled, and died soon after. The samurai factions who supported the winning side ascended in power, spelling the rapid demise of the Heian Period. Saigyo, while at Mount Koya, grieved for the fallen Emperor Sutoku:

Japanese	Romanization	Rough Translation¹
よしや君	Yoshiya kimi	Is this not a good thing, my lord?
昔の玉の	Mukashi no tama no	Once you were seated
床とても	Yuka totemu	upon a jeweled dais,
かからんのちは	Kakaran no chi wa	yet now for you there’s no
何にかはせん	Nani ni kahasen	limit to what you can be [e.g. a Buddha].

This is a rough translation based on Japanese sources. There is no English translation as far as I could find. Apologies for any mistakes above.

Of the ongoing battles between factions, Saigyō lamented:

Japanese	Romanization	Rough Translation¹
死出の山	Shide no yama	People are crossing
越ゆるたえまは	Koeru taema wa	over the Mountain of Death
あらじかし	Arajikashi	without end
なくなるひとの	Naku naru hito no	but I fear that this
かずつづきつつ	Kazu tsuzukitsutsu	will only continue…

This is a rough translation based on Japanese sources. There is no English translation as far as I could find. Apologies for any mistakes above.

Saigyō went on several pilgrimages across Japan throughout his life, reconnecting with old friends at the Court, making new friends, and leaving quite a bit of poetry. He had a very affable manner, and made many dear friends over time:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
君いなば	Kimi inaba	If you should go,
月まつとても	Tsuki matsu tote mo	I’ll say I’m waiting for the moon,
ながめやらん	Nagameyaran	Turning my gaze
あづまのかたの	Azuma no kata no	Toward the eastern,
ゆふぐれの空	Yūgure no sora	Evening sky.

Translation and poem here.

His wanderings were an inspiration to haiku-master Basho centuries later. He was a passionate poet, convinced that poetry was the one enduring thing in life:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
すゑのよも	Sue no yo mo	At the world’s end
このなさけのみ	Kono nasake nomi	This gentle art alone
かはらずと	Kawarazu to	Will stand imperishable –
見し夢なくは	Mishi yume naku wa	Had I not had this dream…
よそにきかまし	Yoso ni kikamashi	I would have you hear of it.

Translation, backstory of this poem, and poem itself here.

Later, when the Minamoto (Genji) Clan finally prevailed and ruled Japan in the new Kamakura Shogunate, Saigyo got to know the new Shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, but rather than ingratiating himself with the new government, he gradually settled down in the modern day city of Osaka, and built a hut for himself near the grounds of Hirokawa-dera Temple. With respect to aging, he wrote:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
ふけにける	Fukenikeru	While my aged
わが身のかげを	Wa ga mi no kage o	Body
おもふまに	Omou ma ni	Is on my mind
はるかに月の	Haruka ni tsuki no	Far away, the moon
かたぶきにける	Katabukinikeru	Is setting.

Translation and poem here.

Finally, at some point in his life, he hope that he would pass away similar to the Buddha: under a flowering tree on the full moon of the second month.

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
願はくは	Negawaku wa	Let me die in spring
花の下にて	Hana no moto nite	under the blossoming trees,
春死なむ	Haru shinan	let it be around
その如月の	Sono kisaragi no	that full moon of
望月のころ	Mochizuki no koro	Kisaragi month.²

Translation by Burton Watson in Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991. p.40

It is said that Saigyo eventually accomplished his wish, and died peacefully in the year 1190 at the age of 73, beneath a blossoming sakura cherry tree during the sixteenth day of second month of the lunar calendar. Saigyo lives on of course both in his poetry, but also his association with the Hyakunin Isshu anthology, as well as the related card game.

Plum Blossoms II

I am reposting this Japanese “waka” poem just for fun. The weather has been pleasant lately, and the plum trees in our yard are in full bloom. I took the photo above yesterday.

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
東風吹かば	Kochi fukaba	When the east wind blows,
にほひをこせよ	Nioi okose yo	let it send your fragrance,
梅の花	Ume no hana	oh plum blossoms.
主なしとて	Aruji nashi tote	Although your master is gone,
春を忘るな	Haru o wasuru na	do not forget the spring.

Sugawara no Michizané (845 – 903)

Lately, I have re-reading an old book about the life of Sugawara no Michizane. He is a fascinating figure in early Japanese history, and probably will post some interesting historical bits here in the coming days.

Until then I hope, dear readers, that you are all safe and well, and have a chance to enjoy the mild weather too. 😄

Ohanami, Ohisashiburi

For the first time in 3 years, since before the pandemic started, we visited my alma mater and saw the cherry blossom trees there!

The Japanese phrase ohisashiburi (お久しぶり) is a stock phrase you often hear in Japanese meaning “long time no see!”, and that was the feeling we had when we visited the trees. Prior to pandemic, we came to view the cherry blossoms every year in a Japanese tradition called ohanami (お花見). I have photos going all the way back when my daughter, now in high school, was just a little girl sitting on my shoulders, reaching up to the cherry trees. In Japanese, these are called sakura (桜). 🌸

As mentioned in a past post, you can spot the difference between plum blossoms and sakura cherry blossoms if you look at the petal shape.

In Japan, especially places like Ueno Park in Tokyo, Ohanami is a big outing. You might go with your coworkers in a big work event, and if you’re the new guy you get stuck trying to reserve a spot to lay out a picnic blanket, organize food, etc. Or, you might go with friends and family, but again trying to get an open spot on the ground for a picnic blanket would not be easy. Of course, many youngsters like to get a little tipsy too while enjoying the nice weather and cherry blossoms.

My family and I have done a few picnics under our cherry trees, but this year we are still being a bit cautious around crowds, plus the weather was still lousy, so we didn’t stay too long. But we did manage to pick up some good Chinese dim sum, bubble tea, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Cherry blossoms come and go, but if that doesn’t make you appreciate the impermanence of life, and to savor it, I don’t know what does.

Footsteps in the Snow: A Poem By Lady Izumi

For my birthday, I picked up a great book on poetry by the 12th century lady-in-waiting, Lady Izumi: The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani. Her name in Japanese is izumi shikibu (和泉式部) by the way. Lady Izumi’s life has been an interest of mine, and I was happy to find good quality translation of her works.¹ The book has a collection of her poems spanning various topics, including this one for winter:

Japanese	Romanizaiton	English
待つ人の	Matsu hito no	If the one I’ve waited for
今も来たらば	ima mo kitara ba	came now, what should I do?
いかがせむ	ikaga sen	This morning’s garden filled with snow
踏ままく惜しき	fumamaku oshiki	is far too lovely
庭の雪かな	niwa no yuki ka na	for footsteps to mar.

trans. by Hirshfield and Aratani

Because the old Heian Period aristocracy was such a closed society, and the public scrutinized everything you said and did, romantic meetings often took at night, and only after careful arrangement. Lady Izumi, according to the translators, was likely stood up for some reason after waiting all night, but she tries to take it in stride with this poem.

¹ The best part about the book is that each poem comes with the original Japanese at the end of the book, so you can recite it as is, or look it up in Japanese.

Li Bai and the Moon

In light of the Autumn Moon Festival, I happened to find this Twitter post I wanted to share with readers:

Reflections on a Quiet Night
By Li Bai
Translated by Yilin Wang

Bright moonlight shines before my bed,
like frost gleaming on the ground.
Raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon.
Lowering my head, I long for my hometown.
— Yilin @ The Lantern and the Night Moths is OUT NOW (@yilinwriter) September 21, 2021

Li Bai was one of the most famous poets of the Tang Dynasty in China, and was widely admired by other poets in antiquity just as he is now. Enjoy!

Fall Is Here!

This season is in the old Japanese calendar is known as hakuro (白露) or “white dew” due to increasing cool humidity in the mornings.¹ The days are getting mild again, and the family and I had a terrific Labor Day weekend.

Something to share for today, a poem from the Hyakunin Isshu anthology. This is the first poem of the anthology, and the only one to really cover the life of the peasantry, but it also does a nice job capturing that early autumn mood.

Japanese	Romanization	English
秋の田の	Aki no ta no	In the autumn fields
かりほの庵の	Kariho no io no	the hut, the temporary hut,
苫のあらみ	Toma no arami	its thatch is rough
わが衣出は	Waga koromo de wa	and so the sleeves of my robe
露にふりつつ	Tsuyu ni furitsutsu	are dampened night by night with dew.

Translation by Joshua Mostow, more explanation of this poem here.

The theme of “dew” appears over and over again in Japanese literature and poetry, and even appears in kimono patterns for fall, known as tsuyu-shiba (露芝). You can see an example of it here.

¹ Related post. The traditional calendar was subdivided into many smaller periods each covering the seasons, weather and so on. Because the lunar calendar is prone to moving around, the dates didn’t always reflect the actual weather, but it still captured the sense of progression from season to season, plus it’s very poetic.

The Tragedy of Lady Izumi

1765 painting by Komatsuken, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The twilight years of the Heian Period of Japan (late 12th century) mark the high-point of the refined Imperial Court, its aristocracy and their literary culture. Poetry at this time, epitomized by the Hyakunin Isshu, was a popular past-time and frequent means of corresponding between men and women (often on the sly). A person’s career or reputation could be made or broken by a skillful, or clumsy, poem. Many of the ladies-in-waiting serving the court aristocracy would also go on to become famous writers in Japanese literature:

Lady Murasaki (Japanese: murasaki-shikibu 紫式部) – who wrote the first Japanese novel, the Tales of Genji, and her own diary is a fascinating read. She is part of the social circle around Empress Shōshi. She is also known for poem 57 in the Hyakunin Isshu anthology.
Sei Shonagon – who wrote the Pillow Book, a free-form thought about the minutia of Heian Period society. Sei Shonagon was part of a rival social circle centered around Empress Teishi. She is known for poem 62 in the Hyakunin Isshu.
Akazome Emon – another accomplished poet in the same social circle as Lady Murasaki. She composed poem 59 of the Hyakunin Isshu among her many other accomplishments.

And finally we come to perhaps the most the most controversial, and yet one of the most brilliant ladies among this generation of ladies-in-waiting turned writers: Lady Izumi. In Japanese she is called Izumi Shikibu (和泉式部).

Like all women at the time, her real name is not known. She is named after her husband’s region of administration (Izumi province), and her father’s role in the Imperial court as master of ceremonies (shikibu 式部). Lady Izumi was born into the elite aristocracy in Heian society of the time, but she distinguished herself both with her particular skill in poetry and with her tendency to get involved in scandalous relationships.

While unhappily married to her husband, Tachibana no Michisada, she had an affair with Prince Tametaka, the third son of Emperor Reizei, which caused her to be divorced and shunned by her family. Her ex-husband also took custody of their only child, a daughter named Koshikibu no Naishi (poem 60 in the Hyakunin Isshu). However, before long her lover Prince Tametaka died due to illness.

Later, Prince Tametaka’s brother Prince Atsumichi approached Lady Izumi and a romantic relationship began. Lady Izumi’s “Diary of Lady Izumi” (izumi shikibu nikki 和泉式部日記) covers this period of time, and their correspondences to one another. For example, she composed the following as a reply to Prince Atsumichi:

Japanese	Romanization	English
薫る香に	Kaoru ka ni	Rather than recall
よそふるよりは	yoso uru yori wa	in these [tachibana] flowers
ほととぎす	hototogisu	the fragrance of the past,
聞かばや同じ	kikaba ya onaji	I would like to hear this nightingale’s voice,
声やしたると	koe yashitaru to	to know if his song is as sweet.

Translation by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani in The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan

She also left behind many romantic poems such as this one (undated, so it’s unclear who he is), which I was surprised to see quoted in the drama Thirteen Lords of the Shogun:

Japanese	Romanization	English
黒髪の	Kuro kami no	My black hair’s
乱れても知らず	midarete shirazu	in disarray — uncaring
うち臥せば	uchi fuseba	he lay down, and
まづかきやりし	mazu kakiyarishi	first, gently smoothed it:
人ぞ恋しき	hito zo koishiki	my darling love.

Source: http://www.wakapoetry.net/gsis-xiii-755/

Since she was divorced anyway, she moved in with the Prince and her relationship with Prince Atsumichi was an open scandal for the Court. They would often be seen riding his carriage through the capitol. Prince Atsumichi’s wife was furious about the affair, and returned to her family, while public criticism of the couple became increasingly harsh and unavoidable.

In the end, Prince Atsumichi, like his brother, died from illness at the age of 27. Lazy Izumi was once again heartbroken.

By this point, Lady Izumi had few options, and no support from her family, so she was taken in as a lady in waiting for Empress Shoshi,¹ where she served alongside another notable ladies Akazome Emon and Lady Murasaki. Empress Shoshi’s father, the ambitious Fujiwara no Michinaga, wanted to gather as much talent under his household as he could. However, Lady Murasaki didn’t think too highly of her:

Izumi Shikibu is an amusing letter-writer; but there is something not very satisfactory about her. She has a gift for dashing off informal compositions in a careless running-hand; but in poetry she needs either an interesting subject or some classic model to imitate. Indeed it does not seem to me that in herself she is really a poet at all.
— trans. Waley, “Diary of Lady Murasaki”

Later, Lady Izumi married Fujiwara no Yasumasa and moved to the provinces, and she was reunited with her only daughter (now in her 20’s). Tragedy struck yet again as her daughter died soon after the reunion, leaving behind two children of her own. Lady Izumi was devastated by this loss, but thinking of her grandchildren, she wrote:

Japanese	Romanization	English
留め置きて	todome okite	Left behind [grandmother and grandchildren]
誰をあはれと	tare wo aware to	whose loss do you
思ひけん	omoi ken	think is more pitiful?
子はまさるらん	ko wa masaruran	The children’s loss is worse
子はまさりけり	ko wa masarikeri	Indeed, the children’s loss is worse.

Rough translation by me, please take it with a grain of salt

By this point, she devoted herself to the Buddhist path as a lay nun named Seishin Insei Hōni (誠心院専意法尼). One of her last poems she composed, poem 56 in the Hyakunin Isshu, is:

Japanese	Romanization	English
あらざらむ	Arazaran	Among my memories
この世の外の	Kono yo no hoka no	of this world, from whence
思ひ出に	Omoide ni	I will soon be gone,
今ひとたびの	Ima hitotabi no	oh, how I wish there was
逢ふこともがな	Au koto mo gana	one more meeting, now, with you!

Translation by Joshua Mostow

This poem, based on Japanese commentaries I’ve read, wasn’t meant to be a simple chat, she was likely missing someone she was still intimately involved with, though it’s unclear who.

Lady Izumi is a fascinating figure to me. She was obviously quite attractive. In a very closed, and high-scrutinized society as the Heian-era court aristocracy, multiple men of very high rank risked considerable scandal just to be with her. In layman’s terms, men of the time thought she was really hot.

Even today, she is the subject of many romantic manga (Japanese comics) written for young women in Japan:

The comic 恋ひうた (koi uta, “Love song”) by Ebira Hiromi (江平洋巳)

The Diary of Lady Izumi (*izumi shikibu nikki* 和泉式部日記) by Igarashi Yumiko

A Chinese-language edition of “Love Song” by Ebira Hiromi

As well as stories about her life:

But Lady Izumi was also more than a femme fatale. She was obviously quick-witted, had many poetic talents, plus she was a loving mother (and grandmother), and a devout Buddhist who suffered many losses in her life. To me, she epitomized the bittersweet life of being a woman in Heian Period aristocratic society.

¹ As Empress Shoshi was the second wife of Emperor Ichijō and a pawn in the power-struggles between two rival branches of the Fujiwara clan (the other faction tied to Emperor Ichijo’s first wife Empress Teishi), this was not a great position to be in, at least until Empress Shoshi successfully gave birth to a son.

Moonlight: A Buddhist Poem

Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels.com

The founder of the Jodo-Shu sect of Buddhism, a 12th-century Buddhist monk named Honen, once composed a poem titled tsukikagé (月かげ, “Moonlight”). What follows is a rough translation on my part:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
月かげの	Tsuki-kagé-no	There is no village
いたらぬ里は	Itaranu sato wa	that the light of moon
なけれども	Nakeredomo	does not shine,
眺むる人の	Nagamuru hito no	but it dwells in the hearts
心にぞすむ	Kokoro ni zosumu	of those who see it.

The “light of the moon” here is meant to symbolize the light of the Buddha, namely Amida Buddha. Light is a common motif in Buddhist art, depicting both wisdom to banish away the darkness of ignorance, and also goodwill to all living beings.

Amida Buddha and his attendant bodhisattvas welcoming Chūjōhime, Taima Temple Mandala,
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Artist Unknown, Japan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The idea is that Amida Buddha’s light shines upon all beings and all places, as explained in the Buddhist text, the Sutra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life:

“The radiant light of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life is dazzling brilliant, illuminating all the buddha lands of the ten directions, and there is nowhere it is not heard of.”
From The Three Pure Land Sutras published by the Jodo Shu Research Institute, translation by Karen J. Mack

Further, the sutra explains in the previous section:

“Those sentient beings who encounter this light will have the three hindrances¹ eliminated, become amenable in body and mind, leap with joy and their hearts will give rise to good. Should they suffer hardship in the three realms of defilement,² when they see this radiant light, they will all attain relief and not again suffer this pain.”

Thus, the light of Amida Buddha shines everywhere, but people may not necessarily know it. Those who do encounter the light experience a transformation within. It may not be obvious at first, but it as one of Honen’s disciples once taught, it melts ice to become warm water.

Thus, Honen’s poem is about how Amida’s goodwill and wisdom reaches out to all beings and all places, and even if people do not see it, it is still there. Further, those who do see it are changed by it, even if they are not aware of it at first.

Namu Amida Butsu

¹ The three hindrances in Buddhism are greed, hatred and ignorance.

² The three realms of defilement is another term for lower states of rebirth that one might fall into: animals, hungry ghosts, and the hell realms.

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