Musō Soseki

Muso Soseki (1275-1351) was a Zen Buddhist monk, and poet, in Medieval Japan and a descendant of Emperor Uda. Soseki would be raised in a monastery after his mother died. He’d leave monastic life for the first time in his early 20s to roam Japan by himself after his zen master doubted his enlightenment. It seems he developed a pattern of entering monasteries and then leaving for walkabouts throughout his younger years. It was at the age of 50 or 51 that he was asked by the emperor Go-Daigo to become chief priest at Nanzin-ji in Kyoto.

He would go on to design, construct, landscape, and head other monasteries under Go-Daigo. Upon the emperor’s overthrow, Soseki, like others, would align himself with the first Shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji. With his allegiance to the new shogun, he continued his work. He’s credited with creating and restoring many monasteries and gardens within what would be called “The 5 Mountain” monastery network while making a deep mark on Zen Buddhism, poetry, and politics.

Soseki treated gardening as a fundamental part of his meditative practice and has impacted gardening and landscaping to this day. He created gardens by using what was already present and embellishing it. Taming the wild into a more orderly and scenic landscape. It seems that most, if not all of the gardens and buildings created by Soseki were ravaged during the Onin War (1467-1477) but many were reconstructed and live to this day. Two locations Saihō-ji and Tenryū-ji are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Other temples and their gardens that are attributed to him include Eiho-ji, Zuisen-ji, Erin-ji, Rinsen-ji, and Jōchi-ji.

He died at 72 with an estimated 10,000 disciples.