CASE #31: Daito’s Raincoat
Daito Kokushi wrote a short verse about the rain:
No umbrella, getting soaked,
I’ll just use the rain as my raincoat.
BACKGROUND
Daito Kokushi
A Japanese Zen master of the Rinzai sect, Daito (1282-1337) was the founder of Daitoku-ji Monastery, one of Japan’s most influential temples. Established as “National Teacher” by the Emperor, he was nevertheless an eccentric who lived for some time as a beggar under a bridge.
NOTE: Daito’s poem is translated by Kenneth Kraft.
COMMENTARY
Centuries later, the poet Basho wrote a haiku that the Emperor’s beggar would have loved.
First rains of winter:
even the monkey wants
a little straw raincoat
Daito was miserable in the rain. The monkeys were miserable. Basho was miserable. But something strange happens when we learn to wear the weather like a coat.
We have so many problems in need of solving that it’s easy to forget that becoming one with a monkey solves them all. Most of the time we’d rather find our own solution. They never last for long. And they don’t work half so well as a monkey’s raincoat. Nevertheless, we persist.
VERSE
“Monkey’s Raincoat”
Was the title of Basho’s
Great anthology—
It’s a kind of inside joke
Between the monkeys and him.