Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Blossom Awakening: The Life and Poetry of Wandering Monk Saigyo

Blossom Awakening: The Life and Poetry of Wandering Monk Saigyo

Saigyo
Tanahashi, Kazuaki
Levitt, Peter

Paperback

BuddhismGeneral Poetry

Publisher Price: $21.95

ISBN10: 1645473635
ISBN13: 9781645473633
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: Jul 15 2025
Pages: 312
Weight: 0.85
Height: 1.20 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.40
Language: English
Pause, breathe, and savor the quiet beauty of Saigyō, one of Japan's most quintessential poets, in this celebration of nature and Buddhist insight.

Born in the twelfth century during a time of great political upheaval and warfare, Saigyō made the unusual decision in his youth to resign from his respectable post as a guard to the emperor's family and pursue a life of Buddhist renunciation, wilderness wandering, and poetry. Over the course of his lifetime, he became one of Japan's most celebrated poets. Today, his spare poems of spiritual longing and aching identification with the natural world continue to inspire fathomless, ineffable emotion in readers all over the world.

With 193 poems on 11 themes like the moon, journeys, mountain abodes, love, and the dreamlike world, Blossom Awakening reveals Saigyō as a spiritual seeker who gave his life to the artist's path. Translators Peter Levitt and Kazuaki Tanahashi present their English renderings with the original Japanese text and offer commentary that illuminates the political, religious, and literary dimensions of Saigyō's life and work.

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