A two-disc field recording of daily monastic life at Eiheiji, the head training temple of the Soto Zen sect in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, made by John Mitchell in 1957 from roughly fourteen hours of tape and first issued by Folkways Records in 1959 with liner notes by Elsie P. Mitchell under the supervision of Rev. Tetsuya Inoue. The recording documents zazen seated meditation, chanted scripture and dharani recitation, temple bells, drums and gongs, and ceremonies including morning and evening services and a fire protection rite, offered as a firsthand record of Zen Buddhist ritual life rather than a musical performance staged for the recording.
Facts
Production
Primary Artist / ComposerJohn Mitchell, recordist, under the supervision of Rev. Tetsuya Inoue; monks of Eiheiji Temple 1 Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterSoto Zen Buddhist monastic ceremony at Eiheiji Temple: named outright by both the album title and the publisher's own catalogue text, corroborated by an independent library's own Buddhism and Zen Buddhism subject headings. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Soto directly: "the head training temple of the Soto Zen sect in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, made by John Mitchell in 1957 from roughly fourteen hours of tape and first issued by Folkways Records in 1959 with liner..."
Belongs to Tradition
The album's own title and the publisher's own catalogue text both name the Soto Zen sect of Buddhism outright as this recording's subject, corroborated by an independent university library's own Buddhism and Zen Buddhism subject headings; the first musical work the atlas holds for the tradition.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.