soseki

Updated: May 6, 2025

At no time, indeed, were the provinces sufficiently peaceful and sufficiently subservient for the carrying out of such a plan by the Ashikaga. The priest Soseki otherwise called "Muso Kokushi," or "Muso, the national teacher" was one of the great bonzes in an age when many monasteries were repositories of literature and statesmanship.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Thereafter, Takauji, and his brother Tadayoshi celebrated with great pomp the ceremony of opening the new temple, and the Ashikaga leader addressed to the priest, Soseki, a document pledging his own reverence and the reverence of all his successors at Muromachi. But that part of his programme which related to the provincial branch temples was left incomplete.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

It is not possible for a Japanese to perform a lowlier act of obeisance towards another than to be the bearer of the latter's sandals. Yoshimitsu was in a position to dictate to the Emperor, yet he voluntarily performed a menial office for a friar. These four priests, Soseki, Myoo, Chushin, and Ryoken, all belonged to the Zen sect.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

They flocked down to the capital, halberd in hand and sacred car on shoulder, and truculently demanded of the Emperor that Soseki, high priest of the new monastery, should be exiled and the edifice destroyed. But the Ashikaga leader stood firm.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era