(b Ise Prov. [now in Mie Prefect.], 1275; d Kyoto, 1351). Japanese Zen master, poet, scholar and garden designer. As spiritual adviser to both Emperor GoDaigo (reg 1318–39) and the military leaders who overthrew him, Muso was politically influential and acted as mediator during the civil wars of the 1330s. At various times in his life Muso served as abbot of Nanzenji, one of the various Gozan (Five Mountains) Zen monasteries including Nanzenji in Kyoto (see KYOTO, §IV, 4). The support of both imperial and shogunal courts enabled him to found many new Rinzai Zen temples. He was instrumental in popularizing Zen teachings, though also criticized for the secularization of some Zen institutions. Three times during his life and four times posthumously he was given the honorific title kokushi (National Master).

• Muso Soseki
  • Garden, §VI, 3(ii): Japan: Medieval
  • Japan, §VI, 4(iii): Ink painting in the Muromachi period
  • Kamakura, §1(iii): Urban development and art life, after 1333
  • Kamakura, §2(ii): Engakuji
  • patrons and collectors
    • Japan, §XIV, 4(ii): Tea ceremony calligraphy: Influence of 16th–early 17th-century tea masters
  • works
    • Kyoto, §IV, 2: Saihoji