Not Seeing Snow: Musō Soseki and Medieval Japanese Zen

Molly Vallor, Ph.D. (2013), Stanford University, is Junior Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Meiji Gakuin University.

• ContentsPrologueList of FiguresIntroduction: Zen in the Generations before Musō: The Growth of the Gozan System in Medieval Japan1 The Life of Musō Soseki: A Critical Reading2 Musō’s Early Life: A Turn to Zen3 Practice and Enlightenment5 Recluse and Abbot6 Building a Line Under Emperor Godaigo7 Association with the Ashikaga and the Northern Court 8 Death and Legacy1 A Master Defined: Musō Soseki in Muchū mondōshū1 Muchū Mondōshūand the Tradition of Kana Hōgoon Zen2 Playing Teacher3 A License to Critique4 Calling Little Jade5 Conclusion2 Beneath the Ice: Musō Soseki and the Waka Tradition1 Shōgaku Kokushishū: An Incomplete Textual History2 Musō and the Way of Waka3 Affirming the Arts: Musō Soseki and Buddhist Discourse on Waka4 Ambivalence and Abstraction: Literal and Figurative Representations of Reclusion in SKS5 New Takes on Old Tropes: Mind Over Lament6 Rarefying the Pine Wind7 Elegantly Unconfused7 Conclusion3 Blossoms before Moss: Medieval Views of Musō Soseki’s Saihōji1 A Long and Sacred History in Saihōshōja Engi2 The Temple and the Blossoms3 Blooms After Death in Shōgaku Kokushishū4 When the Shōgun was at Saihōji after the Blossoms had Fallen5 Zen in Bloom in Musō’s Chronology6 The Musō Renovations: Musō and Medieval Landscape Design7 Saihōji as Musō Memorial8 Harmonizing Pure Land and Zen at Saihōji 9 Conclusion4 Changing Agendas at Musō Soseki’s Tenryūji1 Tenryūji: From Imperial Residence to Commercial Center2 Taiheiki’s Tenryūji: Appearance of an Onryō 3 Tenryūji in 1345: Reunification and the Rise of Buddhism4 Multiple Reconciliations5 Securing Imperial Support for Tenryūji6 Enlightening Godaigo and Other Objectives7 Tying Tenryūji to Ashikaga Takauji in8 ConclusionEpilogueAppendix: Shōgaku KokushishūBibliography