Zen Buddhism in Japan

Zen (禅), from the Sanskrit dhyāna, meditation, is the school of Buddhism that seeks awakening through seated meditation and direct insight rather than scripture or ritual. Brought from China in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it shaped not only Japanese religion but its arts: ink painting, calligraphy, gardens, architecture, the tea ceremony and the Noh theatre all bear its mark.

The three schools

School Founder in Japan Emphasis
Rinzai Eisai, returned from China in 1191 The kōan, a riddle that breaks ordinary thought, with seated meditation
Sōtō Dōgen, returned in 1227 Just sitting, shikantaza, practice as awakening itself
Ōbaku The Chinese monk Ingen, arrived in 1654 Ming Chinese Zen with Pure Land chanting

Zen and power

Rinzai Zen won the patronage of the Kamakura and Ashikaga shoguns, who organised the great monasteries of Kamakura and Kyoto into the Five Mountains, Gozan. These became centres of Chinese learning, poetry and ink painting. Outside the Gozan, Daitokuji and Myōshinji in Kyoto nurtured a more rigorous tradition, which the eighteenth-century master Hakuin revived. Sōtō spread widely among farmers and provincial warriors from its head temples, Eiheiji and Sōjiji.

Images in a Zen temple

  • Shaka, the principal image, often with two disciples.
  • Monju as the Holy Monk of the meditation hall.
  • Rakan in the gate or hall.
  • Idaten in the kitchen and Ususama in the washroom.
  • Portraits of masters, chinsō, given to disciples as proof of transmission.

The arts of Zen

Figures to know

Daruma, the first patriarch; Hotei, the laughing monk; Ikkyū, the poet-monk of Daitokuji; and the zenga masters Hakuin and Sengai.

In the collection

Browse Zen interior pieces, wabi-sabi objects and scrolls and paintings. Our collector concierge can search Japan for Zen calligraphy and painting.

See also

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