SATO, Koji. The Zen Life.

(Tokyo and New York): Tankosha and John Weatherhill, 1972. First edition. Hardcover. 17.5cm by 18.1cm. 190 pages. A finely produced photographic study of everyday life in a Japanese Zen monastery, pairing Koji Sato’s lucid account of Zen discipline with ninety-nine photographs by Sosei Kuzunishi. Rather than examining Zen as an abstract philosophy, the book follows the daily routine of monks at Empuku-ji, near Kyoto, documenting meditation, manual labour, ritual, study, meals, and communal life with a quiet documentary sensibility. A very good copy in dustwrapper.