Letting Go: The Story of Zen Master Tosui

Of the many eccentric figures in Japanese Zen, the Soto Zen master Tosui Unkei (d. 1683) is surely among the most colorful and extreme. The arresting details of Tosui’s life were recorded in the Tribute (Tosui osho densan), a lively and colloquial account, translated here for the first time. Peter Haskel’s introduction places Tosui in the context of the Japanese Zen of his period — a time when the identities of early modern Zen schools were still being formed and a period of spiritual crisis for many distinguished monks.