In the fourth month of 1926, shouldering a bewilderment I had no way to undo, I set out on the road of mendicant wandering.
going in deeper / and deeper still / the green mountains
wakeittemo wakeittemo aoi yama
1926 · Setting out on the wandering road
Sōmokutō · The Begging Bowl (Hachi no ko)
The poem of his departure. However far he walks, no sooner has he crossed one ridge than another green mountain rises. He offers the start of an aimless wandering not as despair, not as hope, but simply as it is. Forty-four years old, having cast everything away and walked out with only a straw hat — Santōka's most famous poem.