Unfettered Mind Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman

Takuan Soho (1573-1645) was prelate of the Rinzai sect of Zen. Well remembered for his strength of character and acerbic wit, he was also gardener, poet, tea master, prolific author and a pivotal figure in the worlds of Zen painting and calligraphy. His religious training began at the age of ten. He entered the Rinzai sect at the age of fourteen and was appointed abbot of the Daitokuji, a major Zen temple in Kyoto, at the age of thirty-five. After a disagreement on ecclesiastical appointments with the second Tokugawa shogun, he was banished in 1629 to a far northern province. Coming under a general amnesty on the death of the shogun, he returned to society three years later to be, among other things, a confidant of the third Tokugawa shogun William Scott Wilson studied at Dartmouth College and the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, and received an M.A. in Japanese literary studies from the University of Washington. His long-selling translations of Hagakure, The Book of Five Rings, and Taiko have become standards. Hagakure was featured prominently in the recent film by Jim Jarmusch, Ghost DogSoho, Takuan is the author of 'Unfettered Mind Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman', published 2003 under ISBN 9784770029478 and ISBN 4770029470.