Qualla: Ryutaku-ji

Ryutaku-ji: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. "What is the sound of one hand?" The question that became the most recognized koan in Zen Buddhism was formulated by Hakuin Ekaku, the fiery reformer who relocated this temple to Mishima in 1761. Ryutaku-ji, nestled in the hills of Shizuoka Prefecture, carries the weight of that lineage: a place where Zen was stripped back to its austere essentials, where the Rinzai school was pulled from the edge of extinction, and where, centuries later, a chain of remarkable abbots would export that hard-won wisdom to meditation halls in Manhattan and the suburbs of Paris. It is a small temple with an outsized reach, its influence measured not in the size of its grounds but in the depth of its silences.

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ryutaku-ji: Lost Records, Long Memory

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Madoro Ishii, CC BY-SA 4.0. The temple's early history is more legend than ledger. Its records have been lost, but temple tradition holds that Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, established it during the Heian period at what is now Atago in Tokyo. Somewhere in the upheaval of the Keicho era, between 15...

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Image: Madoro Ishii | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ryutaku-ji: Ruin and Revival

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hakuin's intensity did not guarantee the temple's survival. Although Ryutaku-ji was reconstructed during the early Meiji period, it had deteriorated to near ruins by the Taisho era. Japanese Buddhism was struggling against the forces of modernization, and many rural temples fell ...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ryutaku-ji: The Poet Who Crossed the Pacific

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Soen Nakagawa became abbot of Ryutaku-ji in 1954 and led the temple for three decades. He was, by most accounts, an extraordinary and unpredictable figure. A gifted calligrapher and haiku poet, he earned the nickname "the 20th Century Basho," after the wandering master who elevat...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ryutaku-ji: A Temple Without Borders

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nakagawa's successors continued his international vision. Kyudo Nakagawa served as abbot from 1990 until his death in 2007, simultaneously leading the Soho Zendo on West Broadway in New York City. He held two worlds in balance: the quiet monastery in the hills of Mishima and the ...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0