Non-Buddhism

NEW SEMINAR!

Starts May 4, 2024.

THE ART OF EXIT:
The Poetry and Politics of Reclusion in Medieval Japan

with

Matthew Staley

Dates & Time

Three Saturdays: May 4, 11, 18, 2024
1-2:30 PM (Eastern, US Time)
(See time zone converter if you’re in a different location.)

Cost (four options):
(i) Free for members of Incite Seminars. Become a member of Incite Seminars;

(ii) $60 for non-members (first five registrations receive 20% discount with promo code: mountain hut);
(iii) Donation of your choice;

(iv) Solidarity tickets available at no cost for those who cannot afford to pay at present (please email us at inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com).

REGISTER HERE

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION

The transition from the Heian to the Kamakura period in Japan gave birth to a new social type in Japanese culture — the poet-recluse. Typified by figures like Saigyō (1105-1180) and Kamo no Chōmei (1155-1216), these new religious and artistic figures began to experiment with lifestyles defined by reclusion from society, new artistic visions, creative religious synthesis, engagement with nature, and a constant state of wandering.

This seminar proposes to investigate the artistic import and the political provocation of these poet-recluse figures. What were these artists and monks doing in choosing this extreme form of life? What were they trying to say, and what did they hope to achieve?

We especially want to ask in what way this form of reclusion can affect the society from which the poet-recluse retreats. How can withdrawal constitute a mode of engagement? And how is the artistic practice central to all of this? Join us as we press into these questions together by reading and wrestling with the work of the Japanese poet-recluses who walked away from everything.

Example readings for this seminar include: Poems of a Mountain Hut by Saigyō (translated by Bruce Watson), Essays in Idleness and Tsurezure by Kamo no Chomei and Yoshida Kenko, In Praise of Shadows by Juni’ichiro Tanizaki. Note that all readings will be read and discussed in English, although those with knowledge of Japanese are more than welcome to share insights from the source text with the group. (Readings will be provided.)

Your facilitator: Matthew Staley writes about religion, philosophy, and psychoanalysis at Samsara Diagnostics. He also hosts conversations at Samsara Audio and facilitates Samsara Study Groups. His work focuses on the interplay of limits and freedom which define the experience of human finitude. He has published on Heidegger, the Kyoto School, waka poetry, Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence, and also Hegel. Matthew currently serves on the board of the Sacramento Psychoanalytic Society, and lives in Sacramento with his wife and son.