Talk:Ryōkan

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The article says Ryokan is a Zen monk but I am reading a book where quotes by him support Shin and Nichiren Buddhism. This article needs to be revised to prevent a rounded view of Ryokan's religion. Shii (tock) 02:40, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

While your point is well taken, I doubt Ryokan would have identified himself as a "Zen" monk, or "Shin," or "Nichiren" or whatever. I don't think sectarian differences would have meant anything to him. I like to think if you could ask him whether he practiced Zen, he'd probably hand you a flower, smile, and walk away. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.199.177.242 (talk) 18:03, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

When I visited the temple that he trained at in Niigata and talked to the abbot, the abbot indicated to me that he changed sects from I believe Nichiren to Soto. Changing sects in Buddhism at that time was much more common that it is now in Japan. Unfortunately, I don't have a source to back it up with. However, in Japan he is commonly associated with the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. Many Soto temples throughout Japan have small statues depicting Ryokan playing with children. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dready (talk • contribs) 06:44, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Every English language source refers to Ryōkan as a "Zen Monk". The only full length study of Ryōkan - Abe and Haskell - is subtitled "Zen Master Ryōkan". So to some extent this is accurate. However Haskell does note his fondness for the White Lotus Sūtra : "Although Ryōkan appears to have remained faithful to the religious ideas of his Sōtō progenitor Dōgen, there was nothing sectarian about Ryōkan's Buddhist practice." (Abe and Haskell, p.xiii) But clearly he trained as a Zen monk. mahaabaala (talk) 06:19, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Taigu -> Daigu
Google web search results:
 * "Ryōkan Daigu" 500
 * "Ryokan Daigu" 493


 * "Ryōkan Taigu" 1130
 * "Ryokan Taigu" 1000

Google book search results:
 * "Ryōkan Daigu" 80
 * "Ryokan Daigu" 12


 * "Ryōkan Taigu" 42
 * "Ryokan Taigu" 4

The editor commented: "Taigu changed for more common: Daigu." However the stats above suggest prima facie that the opposite is the case, with about twice as many instances of Taigu as Daigu on the web, though the Google Books hits (totalling less than 10% of the web hits) indicates the reverse.

Without checking guidelines, I don't know whether the more 'learned' form should be used here, or the more common. It's not critical as it's not in the article title, but it would be nice to get this right. Thoughts, anyone?--Yumegusa (talk) 14:52, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * While it seems to be logical, I'm not sure you can go by the number of Google hits; it's a somewhat imprecise tool to make a determination such as this. For one, there are a lot of duplicate hits.  Secondly, unintentional/uninformed, but flat out wrong spellings will still produce a hit.  Both of these can skew the results.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.29.231.81 (talk) 14:22, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Of course it's not very precise, but it's what we've got. As to 'flat out wrong spellings' being counted, if 99 out 100 people spell something 'wrong' they are no longer wrong, for most intents and purposes.--Yumegusa (talk) 15:57, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Abe and Haskell use Taigu in their study of Ryōkan. As do all other English language publications that I've seen. I think Ryōkan Taigu has a good call to being the standard form in English mahaabaala (talk) 06:19, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

The Japanese wikipedia page refers to Taigu as his pen name. I have found no reference in Japanese that says that he was ordained as Ryokan Taigu. It may be because I haven't checked all of the sources, but I would have expected it to be more prominent. I would recommend changing his name to simply Ryokan and stating that Taigu was his pen name. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dready (talk • contribs) 04:55, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

The article seems a little biased. It glosses over Ryōkan's fondness for food and alcohol for instance. Many of his own poems describe getting drunk, and some of them describe getting blind drunk. Most Buddhists would not consider this consistent with a "very pure life". Ryōkan was in this sense a little ambiguous. This is a biography not a hagiography! Jayarava 11:15, 13 December 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mahaabaala (talk • contribs)