Why East Asian elites spent their final hours crafting poems about the transient world
In short: For centuries, poets, warriors, and monks across the Sinosphere practiced a unique tradition: composing a final poem before death. Rooted in Zen Buddhism, these verses served as a meditative reflection on the impermanence of life, transforming the moment of passing into a final, graceful act of enlightenment and artistic expression.
The death poem, or jisei in Japan, emerged from the Buddhist understanding that the material world is transient and that attachment to it causes suffering. Rather than focusing on the end itself, these poems often employ metaphors—such as falling cherry blossoms or fading sunsets—to capture the fleeting nature of existence. This practice was historically reserved for the literate, ruling, and spiritual classes, including samurai and Buddhist monks, who viewed the composition as a search for a new perspective on reality.
While the tradition is most associated with Japan, similar customs existed in China, Korea, and Vietnam. In Korea, these poems often served as impromptu declarations of loyalty by officials facing execution, such as the 'six martyred ministers' like Yi Kae and Sŏng Sammun, who were executed in 1456 for opposing King Sejo. In Vietnam, the thơ tuyệt mệnh form became a poignant tool for scholars and revolutionaries, including Phan Thanh Giản, who wrote a final poem before committing suicide in 1867 following the French capture of Vĩnh Long.
The structure of these poems varies widely, from the three-line haiku to the five-line tanka, which accounts for over half of surviving Japanese examples. While many are somber, some poets embraced irony or levity, such as Moriya Sen'an, who joked about an entertaining afterlife. Even in the modern era, the tradition has persisted; in 1945, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi sent three traditional waka poems to Imperial Headquarters during the Battle of Iwo Jima, and in 1970, Yukio Mishima composed his own before attempting a coup in Tokyo.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Death poem
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