SUZUKI SHŌSAN (1579–1655) was a Japanese Buddhist monk known for his advocacy of Niō-zazen, a meditative technique drawing upon both Zen and Pure Land methodologies. Shōsan was a bodyguard retainer (hatamoto) of Tokugawa Ieyasu and fought in the crucial battles that gave the Tokugawa family control of all Japan. In 1620, a few years after Ieyasu's death, Shōsan tonsured himself as a Zen monk, favoring the Sōtō sect. Yet he never formally became affiliated with any sect and soon set himself up as the master of a small temple and meditation center called Onshinji some miles out of Okazaki, near Asuke, his birthplace. After six or seven years there, he moved to the Edo (Tokyo) vicinity, where he lived the rest of his life as a semi-itinerant teacher and writer.

Although Shōsan was well known in...