On The Water Poem by Santoka Taneda

'' mizu ni kage aru tabibito de aru '' '' the reflection in the water: / it's a traveler ''

Renouncing the world, drifting here and there, living close to nature, settling now and then in a hermitage, and dying alone is a type of spirituality especially appreciated by the Japanese. Many of their favorite poets, priests, and artists were wanderers - Saigyō, Ippen Shōnin, Bashō, Sesshū, Enkū, to name a few. A life of travel is an abandoning of all that seems permanent or stable; life is reduced to absolute essentials, in the present moment, free of ordinary restrictions or constraints.

'' wanderer '' Santōka is said to have walked more than twenty-eight thousand miles during his travels as a wandering monk