Thomas Hoover - Zen Culture

Zen Culture

The ZenExperience

The Moghul

Caribbee

Wall Street Samurai

(The Samurai Strategy)

ProjectDaedalus

ProjectCyclops

Life Blood

Syndrome

All free ase-books at

www.thomashoover.info

Throughoutthe entire Far East of China, Korea, and Japan, we see the system of a uniqueculture which originated in the sixth century, reached its meridian in thethirteenth and fourteenth centuries and began to decline in the seventeenthcentury, but which is still kept up in Japan even in this day of materialismand mechanization. It is called Zen Culture.

Sohaku Ogata, Zen for the West

ZEN CULTURE

Thomas Hoover

Random HouseNew York

Copyright 1977 by Thomas Hoover

All rightsreserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Publishedin the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously inCanada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

isbn 0-394-41072-6

Manufacturedin the United States of America

KeyWords:

Author:Thomas Hoover

Title:Zen Culture

Zen History, Haiku, Zen, Ceramics, Archery, LandscapeGarden, Stone Garden, Ink Landscape, Zen Architecture, Sword, Katana, NoTheater, Noh Theater, Japanese Tea Ceremony, Tea Ceremony, Flower arranging,Ikebana, Zen Ceramic Art, Raku, Shino,Ryoanji-ji

Gratefulacknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previouslypublished material:

AMS Press,Inc.: Two three-line poems from page of Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan; Doubleday & Company, Inc.: EightHaiku poems from An Introduction to Haiku by Harold G. Henderson. Copyright 1958 by Harold G. Henderson; TheHokuseido Press Co. Ltd.: Poem on page of The Kobin Waka-Shu, translated by H. H. Honda. Poem on page of History of Haiku, Vol. II by R.H. Blyth; Penguin Books Ltd.: A tanka from 'Ise Monogatari' by AriwaraNarihira. Reprinted from page of The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse, translated by Geoffrey Bownas andAnthony Thwaite (1964). Copyright 1974 by Geoffrey Bownas andAnthony Thwaite; Shambala Publications, Inc. (Berkeley, California): Poems onpages 15 and 18 of The Sutra of Hui-Neng; Stanford University Press: Poem onpage 91 of An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry by Earl Miner; Charles E.Tuttle Company, Inc.: Three lines of verse from page of The Noh Drama; University of California Press:Four-line Haiku poem from page of The Year of My Life: A Translation of Issa's Oraga Haru, translated byNobuyuki Yuasa. Copyright i960, 1972 by The Regents of the University of California.

The author's thanks go to Anne Freedgood for editing the manuscript and for her many helpfulsuggestions; to Professor Ronald F. Miller for critical advice on thingsWestern, ranging from art to aesthetics; to Professor Gary D. Prideaux forintroducing the author to both Japan and Japanese linguistics; to Tatsuo andKiyoko Ishimoto for assistance in interpreting Japanese architecture; and toothers who have graciously reviewed the manuscript at various stages andprovided helpful suggestions, including Julie Hoover, Lynn Grifo, Anna Sternand Ellen O'Hara. I am also grateful for guidance from Professors ShigeruMatsugami and Takashi Yoshida, formerly of Tottori University, and from thegarden artist Masaaki Ueshima. The insights of yet others, lost in years ofquestioning and research, are acknowledged here in spirit if not, unfortunately,in name.

JomonCulture (2000 b.c. [?]-ca. 300 b.c. )

Yayoi Period (ca. 300 b .c-ca. a.d. 300)

Mound TombEra (ca. a.d. 300-552)

Asuka Period(552-645)

Buddhism introduced (552)

Chinese government and institutions copied

Early NaraPeriod (645-710)

Late NaraPeriod (710-794)

Japan ruled from replica of Chinese capital ofCh'ang-an built at Nara (710)

Bronze Buddha largest in world dedicated at Nara (752) Compilation of early poetryanthology Manyoshu (780)

Scholarly Buddhist sects dominate Nara

Heian Period(794-1185)

Capital established at Heian-kyo (Kyoto) (794)

Saicho (767-822) introduces Tendai Buddhism from China (806)

Kukai (774-835) introduces Shingon Buddhism from China(808)

Last mission to Tang court ends direct Chineseinfluence (838)

Tale of Genji written by Lady Murasaki (ca. 1002-1019)

Honen (1133-1212) founds Pure Land, or Jodo, sect(1175)

Taira clan takes control of government, oustingaristocracy (1159)