Death Poem

The death poem is a genre of poetry that developed in the literary traditions of the Sinosphere, most prominently in Japan but also in certain periods of Chinese history, Joseon Korea and Vietnam. Its poems reflect on death in general and on the poet's own approaching death, often paired with an observation on life, and the practice originates in Zen Buddhist teaching on the impermanence of the material world, historically composed by poets, warriors, noblemen and Buddhist monks.