Suzuki Shōsan

Suzuki Shōsan (1579–1655). A zen master who grew up in the atmosphere of the ‘Warring States’ (Jap., sengoku) period of Japanese history and who subsequently became identified with a form of Zen that drew heavily upon martial imagery. Born into the warrior class, he had served as a retainer in the army of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1541–1616), one of the military rulers of Japan. He saw many battles, but took time during his military service to visit Zen temples and talk with Zen masters. He showed a talent for cutting directly to the heart of the matter in all these discussions, and he wrote a pamphlet asserting the superiority of Buddhism over Confucianism while still on active duty. He ordained himself in 1620 and went to study with Daigu Sōchiku. The latter said that Suzuki was already well-known as a Buddhist teacher and did not need a new religious name, and so he continued on under his secular name. It was not until he studied with a Vinaya master in Nara that he took proper ordination as a novice and learnt fundamental Buddhist doctrine. He was very active in spreading Buddhism after that, and boldly petitioned the military government to cease its practice of executing female members of the families of condemned criminals to save the nation from bad karma. His desire was to have a non- (or supra-) sectarian Buddhism declared the faith of the nation, and, at a time when Jesuit missionaries were active in the land, he felt compelled to resist their efforts at proselytization. To this end, he composed the work Ha Kirishitan (Against the Christians). Suzuki Shōsan's form of Buddhism was intended for all people, and so was designed to be suited to secular as well as clerical life. He stressed energetic engagement, and counselled his followers to keep the prospect of death before them at all times as a means of focusing, and to take the example of the Niō, or two kings, as their inspiration (these are images of two fierce-looking guardian deities that adorn the main doors of Buddhist temples).