(145) The man

And here he is! The hardest sitting man in Zen business! The man who put the “sit” in the “Soto”! Mr. Sit-Sit-Sit-down-and-shut-up himself, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253). Legend says that under the whole altar thing there really is a piece of him, transferred to Kasuisai from the big temple with his name (Eiheiji) in Fukui when it was destroyed at some point or other. But who cares? The whole point is to, well, sit.

(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr)