Author Guide · Zen Poetry
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When Ryōkan died in the winter of 1831, aged 73, he had published nothing. Four years later the young nun Teishin, who had been his student in his last years, gathered his haiku and waka into Hachisu no tsuyu, “Dew on the Lotus”. He was born Yamamoto Eizō in 1758, the eldest son of the village headman of Izumozaki in Echigo Province, on the coast of what is now Niigata. He became a Buddhist priest at about seventeen, spent twelve years at the Sōtō Zen temple Entsū-ji under the monk Kokusen, and then lived as a wandering beggar-monk and hermit, never leading a temple and leaving no dharma heir. He wrote Chinese-style verse, Japanese waka and haiku, and practised a calligraphy now prized in Japan. In English he exists only through translators, so the real question is which one to read. This guide covers his 7 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 1835–2012 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Ryōkan wrote poems, not books: his work was first collected after his death in Hachisu no tsuyu (1835). In English the main translations are One Robe, One Bowl (1977, John Stevens), Ryōkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan (1977, Burton Watson), The Zen Poems of Ryōkan (1981), Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf (1993), Great Fool (1996) and Sky Above, Great Wind (2012, Kazuaki Tanahashi). Start with Sky Above, Great Wind, which sets more than 140 poems inside the story of his life; the list below shows what each other translation adds.
Where to Start with Ryōkan
If you want his life and poems together
→ Sky Above, Great Wind (2012) — more than 140 poems with anecdotes and his art.
If you want a short first book of poems
→ Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf (1993) — haiku, folk songs and Chinese-style verse.
If you want his letters and prose as well
→ Great Fool (1996).
If you want a translation with full scholarly notes
→ The Zen Poems of Ryōkan (1981) — with a biographical sketch, map and glossary.
7 Key Ryōkan Books, in Order
Hachisu no tsuyu
The first collection of Ryōkan’s poems, put together by the nun Teishin four years after his death. It gathers his haiku and waka, the short Japanese forms, and is the source of the “dewdrops” and “lotus” in the titles of several English translations. Teishin had been close to him in his last years and recorded the manner of his death.
One Robe, One Bowl
John Stevens, an American translator of Japanese Buddhist texts, published this selection with Weatherhill in 1977, with his own introduction. The title names the only possessions of a begging monk. It is now published by Shambhala.
Ryōkan
Burton Watson (1925–2017), the translator of classical Chinese and Japanese literature, made this selection for Columbia University Press’s Translations from the Oriental Classics series; it appeared in New York in 1977 and was reprinted in 1992. Watson concentrates on the Chinese-style poems, a large part of Ryōkan’s work.
The Zen Poems of Ryōkan
Nobuyuki Yuasa’s translation was published by Princeton University Press in 1981 in 218 pages. Besides the poems it has a biographical sketch, a map, illustrations, notes, a glossary and a selected bibliography.
Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf
Stevens’s second Ryōkan book, published by Shambhala in Boston in 1993 in about a hundred pages, with fifteen ink paintings by Koshi no Sengai (1895–1958). It mixes haiku, longer folk songs and Chinese-style verse on joy, sorrow, loneliness, enlightenment and illusion, with anecdotes from his life that trace him from the headman’s son of Echigo to the wandering monk.
Great Fool
Published by the University of Hawaiʻi Press in 1996 in some three hundred pages. Ryuichi Abe, a scholar of Japanese Buddhism, and the translator Peter Haskel go beyond the poems to his letters and other writings. The title echoes his religious name, Taigu, “great fool”.
Sky Above, Great Wind
Kazuaki Tanahashi, the Japanese calligrapher and translator of Dōgen, published this book with Shambhala in 2012 in 272 pages. It sets more than 140 poems alongside examples of Ryōkan’s calligraphy, humorous anecdotes and the story of his late friendship with the nun Teishin. Shambhala presents him with Dōgen and Hakuin as one of Japan’s three great Zen figures, and the only one who never led a temple.
In What Order to Read Ryōkan
The order above is the order of the books, not of the poems. Ryōkan did not date or arrange his work; it survives in manuscripts, calligraphy and the collection Teishin made in 1835, so every translator chooses and orders the poems differently, and the same short poem can look quite different from one book to the next.
There is no need to read them all. Start with one book that tells the life, then read a second translator for the poems themselves: Watson for the Chinese-style verse, Yuasa for notes and a glossary, Abe and Haskel for the letters and prose.
A reading path
1. Sky Above, Great Wind (2012)
2. Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf (1993)
3. Ryōkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan (1977)
4. Great Fool (1996)
Everything Else by and on Ryōkan in English
Beyond the 7 key books: 6 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
More translations
3
3 books · 1950–2026
- 1950Dew-Drops on a Lotus Leafan early translation published in Tokyo, subtitled Ryokwan of Zen Buddhism
- 2000Ryokan: Selected Tanka and Haikuthe short Japanese poems only
- 2026This and That: Selected Short Poems of Ryokana new selection of short poems
Studies and anthologies
3
3 books · 1993–2013
- 1993Three Zen Masters: Ikkyū, Hakuin, RyōkanJohn Stevens on three Zen eccentrics
- 1997Ryokan’s Calligraphyhis brushwork, translated by Sanford Goldstein and Fujisato Kitajima
- 2013Kakurenbo, or the Whereabouts of Zen Priest Ryokana study with translations by Nobuyuki Yuasa
The years · 1758–2012
Quick facts about Ryōkan
- Known for
- Living as a poor hermit-monk in the snow country of Echigo and writing simple, playful poems about begging, children, the moon and solitude that made him one of the most widely read Zen poets.
- 1758
- Born Yamamoto Eizō in Izumozaki
- 1831
- Dies in Echigo, aged 73
- 1835
- Teishin compiles Hachisu no tsuyu
- 1977
- First English selections by Stevens and Watson
- 2012
- Tanahashi’s Sky Above, Great Wind
- Born
- 1758, Izumozaki, Echigo Province (now Niigata Prefecture), eldest son of the village headman
- Names
- Born Yamamoto Eizō; religious name Taigu Ryōkan, “great fool”
- Training
- Priest at about 17; at 21 followed the monk Kokusen to Entsū-ji in Tamashima, where he stayed 12 years
- Way of life
- Wandering mendicant, then hermit in Echigo; no temple and no dharma heir
- Forms
- Chinese-style verse, waka and haiku; calligraphy
- Died
- 18 February 1831, Echigo Province, aged 73
The red mark is 1835: the year Teishin compiled Hachisu no tsuyu, the first collection of his poems.
How Ryōkan Writes: Poems of a Begging Monk
Ryōkan wrote in three registers. He composed verse in classical Chinese, as educated Japanese monks did, and short Japanese poems — waka (tanka) and haiku — along with longer folk-song pieces. In old age, back in Echigo, he studied the eighth-century anthology Man’yōshū and old calligraphy, and the plain diction of those early Japanese poems runs through his own.
His subjects are the daily facts of a monk who owns almost nothing: going out to beg, rain on a hut, playing ball with village children, a cup of rice wine, the moon. He records loneliness and old age as plainly as joy. The best-known short poem in English, about a thief who robbed his hut and left the moon at the window, turns a loss into a gift in two lines.
His link to non-duality runs through Zen practice rather than argument. He trained in Sōtō Zen and received his teacher’s seal of approval, but he wrote no treatises and taught no formal students; Shambhala’s description of Sky Above, Great Wind says people came simply to be near him. The poems set enlightenment and illusion, the poet and the weather, side by side without ranking them. The description of Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf compares him to Henry David Thoreau for his life in a hut and his attention to nature.
Frequently asked questions about Ryōkan’s books
How many books has Ryōkan written?
None in the modern sense. He wrote individual poems and calligraphy, and the first collection, Hachisu no tsuyu, was compiled by the nun Teishin in 1835, four years after his death. This page lists 7 key books — that collection and six English translations — plus 6 further translations and studies.
What are Ryōkan’s books in order?
Hachisu no tsuyu (1835), One Robe, One Bowl (1977), Ryōkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan (1977), The Zen Poems of Ryōkan (1981), Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf (1993), Great Fool (1996) and Sky Above, Great Wind (2012).
Where should I start with Ryōkan?
Sky Above, Great Wind (2012), translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi: more than 140 poems, set inside the story of his life with anecdotes and his calligraphy. For a shorter book of poems only, try John Stevens’s Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf (1993).
What is Ryōkan’s most famous book?
In Japan, Hachisu no tsuyu (“Dew on the Lotus”), the 1835 collection of his haiku and waka. In English, the best-known translations are John Stevens’s Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf (1993) and One Robe, One Bowl (1977). His most quoted single poem is the one about the moon the thief left behind.
Which translation of Ryōkan should I read?
Kazuaki Tanahashi (Sky Above, Great Wind, 2012) if you want the life as well as the poems; John Stevens (One Robe, One Bowl, 1977; Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf, 1993) for short, accessible selections; Burton Watson (1977) for the Chinese-style verse; Nobuyuki Yuasa (1981) for notes and a glossary; Ryuichi Abe and Peter Haskel (Great Fool, 1996) for his letters and other prose.
Who was Teishin?
A young Buddhist nun who became Ryōkan’s student and close companion in his last years, after illness in 1826 forced him to move into the house of his patron Kimura Motouemon. They exchanged poems, she cared for him, and she recorded that he died seated in meditation. In 1835 she compiled Hachisu no tsuyu, the first collection of his poetry.
Was Ryōkan a Zen master?
He received inka, the seal of approval, from his teacher Kokusen at Entsū-ji, so he was a qualified Sōtō Zen monk. But after Kokusen’s death he left the temple, never led one himself and left no dharma heir. The scholar Michel Mohr has suggested he may have disagreed with the reforms of the abbot Gentō Sokuchū, who removed what he saw as foreign elements, such as koans, from Sōtō practice.
Why is he called the “great fool”?
His religious name was Taigu Ryōkan, and Taigu means “great fool”. Stories about him — playing with children, his love of rice wine, his care not to harm insects — fed the image, and Abe and Haskel took Great Fool as the title of their 1996 translation.
Is Ryōkan famous for calligraphy?
Yes. Britannica describes his calligraphy as esteemed for its elegant beauty, and Shambhala notes that poverty sometimes led him to write with twigs instead of brushes. Kiichi Kato’s Ryokan’s Calligraphy (1997) studies it in English.
Footnotes
- Ryōkan — Wikipedia
- Ryōkan — Encyclopædia Britannica
- Sky Above, Great Wind — Shambhala Publications
- Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf — Shambhala Publications
- Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf, 1993 edition — EAGLE, University of Pittsburgh
- Ryōkan, Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, 1977 edition — Texas A&M Libraries catalogue
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The thief left it behind: the moon at my window.”
— Ryōkan, haiku, translated by Stephen Mitchell
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