Ikkyu was a famous eccentric Zen monk-poet (1394-1481) and a
contemporary and friend of Rennyo. Ikkyu himself has been the
subject of popular legend and made popular some years ago in TV
cartoons as little Ikkyu. On one occasion, when Rennyo was building
the Yamashina Honganji Temple, Ikkyu came and seated himself over
some trees that were going to be used in the construction and put
some grass over his head. Some people working in the construction
became nervous, since Ikkyu refused to move. They went to Rennyo to
complain about it. After explaining the situation, Rennyo said to
them just give some tea to Ikkyu, and he will leave. They gave him
tea and he immediately left the construction. Everybody wondered
what happened, when Rennyo explained: "The kanji (Chinese)
character for Tea is made from three parts: Grass on top, a person
in the middle and tree on the bottom. This was just Ikkyu's way of
asking for tea".
On another occasion, in Kyoto there was a very famous pine Tree
called Very Tortuous (or spiral) Pine (Nana magari no matsu). Ikkyu
put up a sign just in front of the pine tree which announced: "I am
going to give a great sum of gold to the person who can see this
pine tree in a straight way". Everybody tried to see how could such
a twisted tree be seen straight. Some people thought that from some
angle the tree could be seen straight. After some time, someone
told Rennyo about the sign. Rennyo, without seeing the tree, said
that he knew the answer and asked for the gold. Ikkyu said that on
the reverse side of the board there was a warning: "This is not
valid for Rennyo". However, when they asked Rennyo for the answer
he replied: "The answer is very simple. The way to see this tree
straight is to recognize that it is twisted."
Again, Ikkyu sent the following koan (Zen riddle-like question) to
Rennyo: "Amida has no mercy since Amida only saves who says His
Name". (In Japanese: Amida ni wa makoto no jihi wa nakarikeri,
tanomu shujou nomi tasukeru" ). Rennyo answered the koan with a
poem: "There is no heart far from Amida, but a covered bowl of
water covered cannot reflect the moon" (Amida ni wa hedatsuru
kokoro wa nakeredomo futa aru mizu ni tsuki wa yadoraji).
By contrast stories concerning Shinran such as we find in the
Godensho are more serious and express points of doctrine. Through
these popular stories, Rennyo is shown in a more light-hearted way
to be on good terms with a monk of another sect, but also
spiritually keen in responding easily to the questions put to him
by the monk. The stories show that Rennyo was the equal of Zen
monks who were prominent in religion and arts.