JISEI DEATH POETRY

In preparation for their death in battle, or as part of ritual suicide, samurai composed a traditional poem bidding farewell to life

Roughly translated as a ‘farewell poem to life’, a jisei is a poem traditionally composed in preparation for one’s death. Drawn from a mixture of Zen Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism and Shinto traditions, jisei poems frequently contain natural imagery as the writer reflects on their life, their place in the world and their transition to the afterlife. Often in the tanka form – 31 syllables over five lines – jisei were written by scholars, poets and monks, and also samurai, whose poems frequently reflected on duty, clan loyalty and the core tenets of bushido.

Centuries ago, samurai would compose their jisei and carry it with them into battle, but they were also written as part of ritual suicide, or seppuku.

One famous jisei comes from Asano Naganori, lord of the 47 Ronin, which inspired Japan’s most famous folktale. Sentenced to death after attacking a government official, Naganori wrote a poem (1 in the box below) in farewell.

Flowers, particularly Japan’s national flower – the cherry blossom, or sakura – often appear in jisei poetry to symbolise the beauty but also the brevity of life. However, many other natural images, as well as seasonal motifs, were used to express the writer’s meditations. After his defeat at the Battle of Uji in 1180, the poet and warrior Minamoto no Yorimasa prepared to commit seppuku. His jisei compares himself to a rotten or lifeless tree, reflecting upon his regret at having not produced an heir (2, below).

Before the Battle of Shijonawate in 1348, the young samurai general Kusunoki Masatsura had a premonition of his own death and composed his jisei by carving it onto the door of a temple. In it he expresses his wish to take his place among fellow fallen warriors. He was then defeated in single combat during the battle, and committed seppuku as a result (3, below).

In 1912, General Nogi Maresuke and his wife Shizuko committed suicide on the day of the

Meiji Emperor’s funeral, following the old samurai tradition of not outliving one’s master, known as junshi. In preparation for his death, Nogi wrote his own jisei (4, below)

While Nogi carefully composed his poem to express his enduring loyalty to the emperor, many jisei were not so deliberately planned, and often were spoken aloud or sung spontaneously by the dying. The 15th-century warrior-poet Ota Dokan was assassinated in 1486, and with his final breaths he is said to have composed a poem (5, below).

Yamaoka Tesshu, a celebrated 19th-century samurai, swordsman and calligrapher, composed his jisei in the haiku form. While he was dying of stomach cancer, his poem describes the immediate experience of agony, interceded by the calling of a bird outside – birds and ravens have always been closely associated with death in Japanese tradition (6, below).