D t suzuki biography

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D. T. Suzuki

Japanese Zen scholar (1870–1966)

Not to be confused with Zen Buddhist monk Shunryū Suzuki

D. T. Suzuki
Photo, c. 1953
Born	(1870-10-18)18 October 1870 Honda-machi, Kanazawa, Japan
Died	12 July 1966(1966-07-12) (aged 95) Kamakura, Japan
Occupation	University professor, essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, writer
Notable awards	National Medal of Culture

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (鈴木大拙貞太郎, Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō, 18 October 1870 – 12 July 1966^[1]), self-rendered in 1894 as Daisetz,^[2] was a Japanese essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, and translator. He was an authority on Buddhism, especially Zen and Shin, and was instrumental in spreading interest in these (and in Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. He was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at West

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The Voice of Japanese Zen: D.T. Suzuki

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biographyhistoryJapanese livingmuseumsspiritualityzen

Suzuki at age 86 in Mexico; image courtesy of the D.T. Suzuki Museum

A Son of Samurai, a Life of Loss, the Voice of Japanese Zen:
D.T. Suzuki

A Most Difficult Childhood

Unless we agree to suffer, we cannot be free from suffering.

When he was only six years old, little Teitaro Suzuki, the youngest of fem children, lost his father. A year later, he lost an older brother.

Born into the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the Suzuki home had gone from the esteemed physicians of the Honda Clan, the second grandest samurai house in the castle town of Kanazawa, to abject poverty with the abolition of the samurai class.

The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow.

The youngest Suzuki chased down monks and missionaries alike to debate philosophy in an attempt to understand his own difficult circumstances. While

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Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki Biography

D. T. Suzuki was born on 18 October 1870, as Teitarō Suzuki in Honda-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the fourth son of physician Ryojun Suzuki (he later changed his given name on becoming a Zen monk). Although his birthplace no longer exists, a monument marks its location.

The Samurai class into which Suzuki was born declined with the fall of feudalism, which forced Suzuki's mother to raise him in impoverished circumstances after his father died. When he became old enough to reflect on his fate in being born into this situation, he began to look for answers in various forms of religion. His naturally sharp and philosophical intellect found difficulty in accepting some of the cosmologies to which he was exposed.