Zen Culture

by Thomas Hoover

Overview

The author writes, "Zen culture's primary lesson is that we should start trying to experience art and the world around us rather than analyzing them. When we do this, we find that everything suddenly comes alive. If we can take this power of direct perception, sharpened by the devices of Zen art, back to everyday activities, we will find a beauty in common objects that we previously ignored. Flowers-indeed individual petals-become objects of the most intense loveliness. When we see the world with a Zen-honed awareness, our sense of the beauty in objects supplants our desire to possess them. If we allow the ancient creators of Zen culture to touch our lives, we open wider the doors of perception."

Includes chronology, glossary, and bibliography for in-depth study.

Lavishly illustrated with artwork and photographs. Printed on acid-free, archival-quality paper. Newly designed and typeset by Waking Lion Press.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781434104816
Publisher:	Waking Lion Press
Publication date:	07/21/2021
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xi

I The Beginnings: Prehistory to 1333 3

1 Zen Culture and the CounterMind 5

2 The Prelude to Zen Culture 15

3 The Rise of Japanese Buddhism 27

4 The Chronicles of Zen 38

5 Zen Archery and Swordsmanship 51

II The Age of High Culture: Ashikaga (1333-1573) 63

6 The Great Age of Zen 65

7 Zen and the Landscape Garden 76

8 The Stone Gardens of Zen 89

9 Zen and the Ink Landscape 99

10 The Zen Aesthetics of Japanese Architecture 113

11 The No Theater 126

III The Rise of Popular Zen Culture: 1573 to the

Present 137

12 Bourgeois Society and Later Zen 139

13 The Tea Ceremony 148

14 Zen Ceramic Art 160

15 Zen and Haiku 172

16 Private Zen: Flowers and Food 189

17 The Lessons of Zen Culture 198

Japanese Chronology 205

Glossary 209

Bibliography 217

Permissions 22

Editorial Reviews

"[Zen Culture] covers the ground in an easy and informative way, describing the origins of Zen itself and the Zen roots of swordsmanship, architecture, food, poetry, drama, ceramics, and many other areas of Japanese life." -Library Journal

"Thomas Hoover has a considerable gift for expressing his appreciation and understanding of various arts associated with Zen. . . . These are deftly treated, with a concise synopsis of the historical development of each; and together Hoover's discussions provide an excellent introduction to the aesthetics of Japanese culture." -Kirkus Reviews

"Zen Culture, concerned as it is with the process of perception as much as with actual works of art, can open our sense so that we experience anew the arts of both East and West, ancient and modern." -Asian Mail.

From the Publisher