Mugai Nyodai

Mugai Nyodai (Japanese: 無外如大, 1223–1298), was one of the first Zen abbesses and the first female Zen master in Japan. A disciple of Mugaku Sogen, she organized convents and spread the lessons of Rinzai Zen.^[1][2][3] The only surviving written accounts of her life date to more recent centuries, and so many details of her biography are unclear.^[4]

Yoshitoshi's Lady Chiyo (Nyodai) and the Broken Water Bucket

References

1. "Mugai Nyodai, Zishou Miaozong 資壽妙總; 1095–1170. First Woman to Head a Zen Order – Buddhism". Bellaonline.com. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
2. "Japanese Zen Master Honored by Her Followers". The New York Times. 22 November 1998. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
3. Deal, William E. (2007). Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195331264.
4. Fister, Patricia (5 July 2018). "Commemorating Life and Death: The Memorial Culture Surrounding the Rinzai Zen Nun Mugai Nyodai". Women, Rites, and Ritual Objects in Premodern Japan. Brill. ISBN 9789004368194.

Further reading

• Tisdale, Sallie. Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom, HarperOne, 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-059816-7