Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Priest Jakuren

Meaning

After the passing shower, the mist rises slowly through the rain-drenched leaves of the cedar. An autumn evening.

Commentary

The poem depicts a precise, transient moment suspended between two weathers: the shower has just passed, the cedar leaves are still wet with rain-dew, but mist is already forming and rising. The poem is composed entirely of natural phenomena — no human presence at all — yet it conveys an atmosphere of deep, melancholy beauty.

Jakuren was a monk-poet who died before the completion of the Shin Kokinshū, to which he had been a key contributor. He was the adopted son of Fujiwara no Toshinari (poem 83). His poetry exemplifies the yūgen aesthetic — depth suggested through restraint, natural imagery, and the refusal to explain what it evokes.

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