A BRIEF HISTORY OF ZEN’S BRIEF HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES
THE abridged story of Zen in U.S. can be told in two chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on a handful of pioneers who built the foundations of Zen in the West today. In chapter 2, Zen enjoys a boom in growth and some serious stumbles.
CHAPTER 1: PIONEERS
ZEN came to the West because Japanese people came to the West, first to Hawaii and then to the North American West Coast, beginning in the late 1860s.
In 1913, the Rev. Hosen Isobe, a Soto Zen priest, arrived in Honolulu to found the first Zen temple in the territorial U.S. The Soto Mission of Hawaii began as a simple hall in a donated building, but a growing Japanese community provided the support to build a traditional temple, Shoboji, dedicated in 1921. In 1922 Isobe traveled to the mainland to found the Zenshuji Soto Mission in Los Angeles and later, in 1934, the Sokoji Soto Mission in San Francisco.
Zen eventually came to the attention of Western intellectuals. Western academia
