Zen was brought from China to Japan in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, chiefly as the Rinzai and Sōtō schools. It stresses zazen, the master-disciple relationship and awakening in everyday life, and shaped Japanese arts from the tea ceremony to poetry. In the twentieth century it became widely known in the West.
Zen
The Japanese form of Chan Buddhism, centred on seated meditation and the direct realization of one’s true nature.