The sparrow as a symbol of the unity of poetry and Zen in the works of Shinkichi Takahashi

Abstract

The paper examines the poetic image of a sparrow in the poems by Shinkichi Takahashi against the background of Zen Buddhism, which the poet practiced throughout his life. Though most scholars still discuss his poems in the context of Japanese Dadaism, the author shifts the interpretation of his legacy to Zen imagery and Zen philosophy. A great number of essays and notes published by Shinkichi Takahashi that remain almost unknown outside Japan may help us to expand our horizon in understanding his poetic images and render him a unique and profound poet that influenced the following literary tradition of Japan. The poet’s exceptional consistency and lifelong devotion to the image once created by him provides us a rare opportunity to study the transformation of his self-concept throughout his entire life. One of the main objectives of the article is also the question of delimiting the ideological message of European Dadaism with its subsequent interpretation in Japan in the context of the poet’s work. The paper attempts to establish what brings Shinkichi Takahashi’s dada closer to the elements of Zen philosophy, and what distances him, thus, from European Dadaism.