Sōchō

▪ Japanese poet

also called  Sōkan, or Saiokuken  

born 1448, Suruga province [now in Shizuoka prefecture], Japan

died April 11, 1532, Japan

      Japanese renga (“linked-verse”) poet and chronicler of the late Muromachi period (1338–1573) who, along with two other renga poets, wrote Minase sangin hyakuin (1488; Minase Sangin Hyakuin: A Poem of One Hundred Links Composed by Three Poets at Minase).

      Little is known of Sōchō's early years, but he spent many of his adult years as a disciple of the Buddhist monk and renga master Iio Sōgi. In early 1488 Sōchō, Sōgi, and another student, Shōhaku, met at the village of Minase, between Kyōto and Ōsaka, and composed Minase sangin. The poem is considered to be one of the best examples of linked-verse poetry, which was at its peak during that time.

      After the death of Sōgi in 1502, Sōchō wrote the narrative Sōgi shūen ki (“An Account of the Last Moments of Sōgi”) to commemorate his master. Later works included Sōchō shuki (1522–27; “Memoirs of Sōchō”), in which he used renga and haikai (comic renga) to describe his travels during that period, and Sōchō nikki (1530–31; “Sōchō Diary”).

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