What form of Buddhism became very popular amount warriors and artists in Japan?

 

What form of Buddhism became very popular amount warriors and artists in Japan?

by Matthew

(Washington)


Matthew,

I am sure you are talking about Zen.

You can read about Soto Zen on this page.

Zen became popular with the warrior class in the 1600s after Japan was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate.

The reasons are multiple but the fact that it gained influence with the ruling elite is not stranger to that.

In time of peace, the warrior elite turned its attention to the pursuit of arts and literature.

Zen, being based on simplicity and purity, became a favorite. Soon, Zen influenced painting, poetry, calligraphy and tea.

The tea ceremony was considered the apogee of refinement and only the most cultivated of samurai practiced it.

Actually, one of the monks who brought tea to Japan was a Rinzai Zen monk called Myōan Eisai (明菴栄西).

Lastly, many masters of tea were themselves Zen monks. The master was Murata Jukō, a Soto zen monk who lived in 1423–1502.

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