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profile/ikkyu-sojun.md
Translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill
Published: Tue Jan 30 2018
Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
AGNI 42 Print Only
Face to Face with My Lover on Daito’s Anniversary

Ikkyu Sojun (1394–1481) was a Zen master renowned for his teaching, calligraphy, and revolutionary shakuhachi (bamboo flute) playing. He founded what came to be known as “The Red Thread” (erotic) school of Zen and scandalized the Buddhist community when, at age seventy, he moved his lover into his own quarters in his temple.

Sam Hamill has published fourteen volumes of poetry and more than twenty volumes of poetry translated from ancient Greek, Latin, Japanese, and Chinese. The co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, he served as its editor from 1972 to 2004. (updated 7/2010)

Hamill’s collection Destination Zero was reviewed in AGNI 43 by Sarah Randolf.

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