Helen J. Baroni, Obaku Zen. The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa Japan

Abstract

This is the first detailed English-language study of the Obaku branch of Japanese Zen. Beginning with the founding of the sect in Japan by Chinese monks in the seventeenth century, the volume describes the conflicts and maneuverings within the Buddhist and secular communities that led to the emergence of Obaku as a distinctive institution during the early Tokugawa period.