One Minute History - Samurai Death Poems
4A samurai was expected to walk a fine line as both a fearsome warrior and a cultured, refined individual. These expectations followed a samurai all the way to the grave, and this gave birth to a remarkable practice wherein a Japanese noble facing imminent death was expected to compose a poem as their last act. The practice of death poetry in Japan stretches back to at least 686 AD, when Prince Ōtsu, a son of the Emperor Tenmu, composed a poem shortly before he was executed on false charges of treason. By the time of the Sengoku Era, death poetry was firmly established in the Bushido code governing samurai behavior, and any samurai worth his sword was expected to write a few lines before he went out. As for the poems themselves, they were typically short – usually only five lines – and they were expected to be written in a graceful, reflective and emotionally neutral mood, often containing meditations on the impermanence of life.
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