As with so many of the acquaintances who brighten one’s life, I
encountered Zen Master Tòsui Unkei (d. 1683) quite by accident—
much as did the nameless beggars, day laborers, and assorted townsfolk
who chance upon him in the pages of his colorful biography, the
Tribute.
In the course of researching the life of the noted priest-poet Taigu Ryòkan (1758–1832),Tòsui’s name surfaced as a largely forgotten earlier Zen figure who embodied many of the traits for which Ryòkan was celebrated—a staunch independence and indifference to hardship, a rejection of the monastic world for a life among the common people of Japan, and a keen understanding of Zen combined with an at-times childlike naïveté.
In the course of researching the life of the noted priest-poet Taigu Ryòkan (1758–1832),Tòsui’s name surfaced as a largely forgotten earlier Zen figure who embodied many of the traits for which Ryòkan was celebrated—a staunch independence and indifference to hardship, a rejection of the monastic world for a life among the common people of Japan, and a keen understanding of Zen combined with an at-times childlike naïveté.
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