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Shunryū Suzuki

Shunryū Suzuki

1904 CE–1971 CE · Modern · Kanagawa Prefecture

May 18, 1904 – December 4, 1971

Shunryū Suzuki (1904–1971) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen priest who became one of the most influential figures in the transmission of Zen to the United States. Arriving in San Francisco in 1959, he attracted a circle of American students and helped establish the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962 and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 1967. His informal talks were gathered into Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970), one of the most widely read Western Zen books. He died in San Francisco in 1971. (He is distinct from the scholar D. T. Suzuki, already in the roster.)

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Did you know?

  • The first Zen monastery outside Asia

    Shunryū Suzuki arrived in San Francisco in 1959 and, in 1967, helped establish Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the mountains of central California — often described as the first Zen Buddhist monastery founded outside Asia. He was 63 the year it opened.

    How we know

    Shunryū Suzuki: b. May 18, 1904 – d. Dec 4, 1971; arrived San Francisco May 23, 1959 (age 55); Tassajara Zen Mountain Center founded 1967 (age 63), widely cited as the first Zen monastery outside Asia (Santa Lucia Mts / Ventana Wilderness, inland from Big Sur).

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 1 of 2Born

Kanagawa Prefecture

What they did here

DOCUMENTED: born in 1904; trained and served as a Sōtō Zen priest in Japan.

About Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa Prefecture, in the greater Tokyo area of Japan, includes Kamakura, a historic centre of Japanese Zen. The Sōtō Zen priest Shunryū Suzuki, who later founded the San Francisco Zen Center, served at temples in this region of Japan before emigrating to the United States in 1959.

See other sages who lived in Kanagawa Prefecture→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Shunryū Suzuki’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Shunryū Suzuki’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(1)