Musō Soseki

Musō Soseki (Japanese梦 窓 疎 石; * 1275 in Ise, † September 30, 1351 ), also known as Musō Kokushi (梦 窓 国 师), was a Japanese Zen master, policy adviser, garden designer, author of Zen poems and Zen sayings and calligrapher. He is considered the founder of the Japanese tea ceremony.

Life and work

Musō Soseki (his monastic name, birth name is unknown ) was one of the most influential Zen master and one of the most important Japanese garden designers of the early period. His life and work marked the transition period between the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period ( = Ashikaga time).

Training

He was born in 1275 in Ise, his father moved but already in 1278 with him to Kōshū ( also spelled: Kai, in today's Yamanashi Prefecture ), then a place of pilgrimage of the nobles. At the age of 6 years ( according to other sources 8 years ), he began with the first of the Shingon Buddhism direction to employ, for example, dealt with the writings of its founder Kūkai ( 774-835 ). At the age of 19 years ( according to other sources in 1297 ), he converted to Tendai direction ( elements of both directions, he integrated into his school later). 1294 he joined after passing an entrance examination into Kennin -ji monastery ( Japanese: ji = temple ) in Kyoto, where he at Muin Zenshi (according to other sources: Yishan Yining [ notation also: I- shan I- ning, Issan Ichinei ] (1247-1317), a then famous emigrated from China Zen priest and teacher, whose model of Chan master Huai Su ( Tang dynasty, 737 to after 798 ) and master of the Sung period were ), and later at Koho Kennichi (1241-1316) his training in the Rinzai direction ( = Zen Buddhism ) received. In Sosekis calligraphic work of both the influence of Kukai and Ichineis is felt, which distinguishes it from other contemporary calligraphy Zen master. The Rinzai school was closely associated with the Imperial House and the military government.

Rise

In the Kamakura period then began the political rise of Soseki to a kind of state priests. He was appointed as a consultant to various Shogun to Kamakura, where at that time the seat of the Bakufu, the military government of the Shogun, was located. He advised from time to time but also three Japanese Tenno ( Emperor ).

First, he was appointed by Emperor Go - Daigo (reigned 1318-39 ) as head of the monastery Nanzenji in the southeast of Kyoto. This was, as Kennin -ji, also a large, government-supported monastery.

It was in this capacity then top advisor to the Shogun Ashikaga Takauji ( 1305-1358 ). This was the first Shogun, who had his seat no longer in Kamakura, but in Muromachi, a district of Kyoto. Takauji had occupied in 1333 Kyoto in the year, the Emperor Go - Daigo forced to flee into exile ( where this as a counter-government called Südhof built ) and was explained by a remaining in Kyoto part of the imperial family, who worked with him, the Shogun of the so-called North Court. Thus began the period of the Northern and Südhöfe ( Nanboku -chō ).

Political, religious and cultural significance

Takauji was faced with the Zen movement and thereby as well as the influence of Muso Soseki was the Zen teaching during the Ashikaga Shogunate Buddhism became the dominant branch.

Takauji and Soseki left in each of the 66 provinces a " Temple of Peace " ( Ankoku -ji) or " divine tower" ( Rishou - tou ) built to mediate between the North and Südhöfen. Soseki it was he who ordered the construction of temples and gardens in Tenryu -ji and Saiho -ji. Dozens of other gardens in Zen monasteries are attributed to him.

These large construction projects were funded from the proceeds of a 1341 order sent to China official trade mission ( " Tenryuji bune "). Soseki was thus the initiator of the economic re-opening and resumption of trade relations between Japan and China, the country of origin of Zen.

The decisive installed by Soseki as a leading Buddhism direction Zen had a major impact on Japanese culture, especially the literature ( dissemination of " Gozan - Bungaku " culture [" Literature of the Five Mountains "]; these flow saw literature and calligraphy as a central element in education to the monk ).

Soseki himself published numerous poems and writings on the Rinzai Shuu- Buddhism. Meditation in the garden was the view of Kokushi the best way to learn Buddha.

Best known his writing " Muchu Mondo " is ( " dialogs in a dream. Buddhism and Zen About "). It contains his basic ideas about meditation, Koan, and enlightenment, as well as comments on the tea ceremony, the arts and gardens. Build the treatise is in the form of a conversation in which Kokushi answers to 93 questions of Ashikaga Tadayoshi ( 1306-1352 ) is the brother of the shogun Ashikaga Takauji ( 1305-1358 ).

Soseki taught many Zen students ( overall he is said to have over 13,000 students, including 52 appointed by him to the Zen master taught ) and received three emperors - Go- Daigo ( 1318-1339 ), Kogen ( 1313-1364 ) and Komyo (1321-1380) - the honorary title " Kokushi " ( " National teacher "). The team fielded by him for the monastery Rinzen -ji monastery generally regarded as one of the earliest in Japan. Some Western critics doubt the seriousness of his Zen teachings, as a real turning to Zen requires the detachment of writing journals. Also required in the Zen teaching direct transfer of enlightenment from master to student with so many students is impossible.

Musō Soseki attributed gardens

• Saihoji (also: Kokedera ) to 1339, the oldest known Kare -san- sui - garden. Hailing from the 8th century temple was taken over by Soseki in 1334 and converted into a Zen monastery, restored the existing garden by him to 1339. The introduced of Soseki elements and structures are not obtained, they were destroyed by wars in the 15th century.
• Tenryu -ji to 1343rd Since 1994, UNESCO World Heritage Site. The attribution is disputed by other opinions rather created by the Chinese priest Lanqi Daolong due to Chinese style characteristics.
• Zuisen -ji
• Eiho -ji ( write-up)
• Erin -ji

Writings

• Muso Soseki ( author), Taro Yamada and Guido Keller ( translator's ): Conversations in a dream ( Great Zen Master, Vol 1), Frankfurt am Main: Angkor Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-936018-20-0
• Muso Kokushi, Thomas Cleary ( Translator's u ed.): Dream Conversations. On Buddhism and Zen, Random House, 1996, ISBN 1-57062-206- X

Secondary literature

• Oskar Benl: Muso Kokushi - A Japanese Zen master, in: Oriens Extremus, Vol 2, pp. 86-108, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1955
• Collcutt Martin ( author), Jeffrey P. Mass (ed.): Musō Soseki, in: The Origins of Japan 's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteen Century, Stanford (Calif.): Stanford University Press, 1997, pp. 261-94.
• Karl Hennig: The Karesansui garden as an expression of the culture of the Muromachi period, Hamburg: Society for Nature and Ethnology, 1982 (Information Society for Nature and People of Eastern Asia eV, Hamburg; 92). At the same time: Hamburg, Univ, Diss, 1982.
• Norris Brock Johnson: Zen Buddhist Landscapes and the Idea of ​​Temple: Muso Kokushi and Zuisen -ji, Kamakura, Japan. Arch & Comport. / Arch. Behavior, 1993, vol 9, no. 2, pp. 213-226. See also: PDF
• Shunmyo Masuno: Muso Soseki: Nihon files where kiwameta Zenso ( Muso Soseki: The Zen Priest who Mastered the Japanese Garden), Tokyo: NHK Books, 2005
• Joseph D. Parker: Zen Buddhist landscape arts of early Muromachi Japan (1336-1573), ( SUNY series in Buddhist studies ), Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999, ISBN 0-7914-3909-7 ( Hardcover ), ISBN 0-7914-3910-0 ( paperback )
• Ildegarda Scheidegger: Bokutotsusô: studies on the calligraphy of the Zen master Muso Soseki (1275 - 1351), ( Worlds of East Asia, 6), Bern, inter alia,: Lang, 2005, ISBN 3-03910-692-9
• WS Merwin and Soiku Shigematsu: Sun at Midnight: Poems and Sermons by Musō Kokushi, San Francisco: North

Point Press, 1989.

• Takeji Tamamura: Musō Kokushi, Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1958.