Beyond the Perfect Poem

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As poets, we strive and strive for perfection—to get le mot juste, the correct meter or intonation, the most precise image or sound. But what a relief to not strive, to allow the line to complete itself or permit the poem to arrive at its own conclusion! Going further, Shundo Aoyama Rōshi, in the following sublime excerpt from one of the essays in Zen Seeds: Reflections of a Female Priest, suggests that actually including imperfection in a work of art may represent a deeper esthetic mastery than the mere attempt at perfection. Referring specifically to the art of calligraphy, she writes: “When the line wavers and characters are omitted and sufficient empty white space surrounds the work, the effect is superior. When there are no missing characters and the lines run straight, then what results is truly inferior.”

Excerpt from Shundo Aoyama Rōshi's Zen Seeds: Reflections of a Female Priest

A Brocade Cannot Be Woven in One Color

It was the day of the tea ceremony during which a jar containing a year’s supply of tea is opened. I decided to hang a scroll on which was written a poem by Sumita Oyama, who introduced Santoka Taneda (1882-1940), the famous haiku poet and priest, to the world. The poem read, “One persimmon remaining on the tree, snow on the distant mountains.”

On entering this room, a guest reverently inspected the scroll and then inquired, “How do you read the second line?” The characters in that line were unaligned and one was missing. The entire work evoked an ineffable impression of artlessness. I forgot about bringing out refreshments and began to talk.

In the words of Murata Juko (1422–1502), known as the founder of the tea ceremony, “When the line wavers and characters are omitted and sufficient empty white space surrounds the work, the effect is superior. When there are no missing characters and the lines run straight, then what results is truly inferior.”

What a paradox! Ordinarily, people who practice calligraphy go to great pains to achieve perfect alignment and would consider missing characters inexcusable. At any rate, there is another viewpoint that regards unaligned and missing characters as interesting and perfection as dull. What could be the source of such thinking?

Juko also said, “A moon without clouds is disappointing.” Living one hundred fifty years earlier than Juko was Yoshida Kenko (1284-1350), author of Essays in Idleness (in Japanese, Tsurezuregusa), in which he wrote, “I was impressed to hear the abbot Koyu say, ‘Trying to have everything in perfect order is the way of inferior persons. It is better to have some disorder. When everything is carefully regulated, it’s boring.’” He also wrote, “Are cherry blossoms to be seen only in full bloom? Is the moon to be seen only without clouds?”