He's Leaving Home: My Young Son Becomes a Zen Monk - Softcover

Kiyohiro Miura; Jeff Shore

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804820600 ISBN 13: 9780804820608

Publisher: Tuttle Pub, 1996

Synopsis

Tells the story of Kimura's son Ryota, who decides at the age of eight that he wants to be a Zen monk, and the changes in both their lives when the Zen priest Gukai takes charge of the boy

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese

From Booklist

Miura's beguiling, semiautobiographical novel, which was awarded Japan's most esteemed literary prize, will charm and intrigue Western readers with its sweet-natured and thoughtful simplicity. Kimura, the narrator, discovers a decrepit Zen temple near his home and starts attending seated meditation sessions, or zazen, on the weekends, taking along Ryota, his young son. Even though he marvels at the usually rambunctious boy's willingness to spend time at the temple, he is taken by surprise when eight-year-old Ryota tells him he wants to become a monk. Kimura assumes the boy will quickly outgrow this desire, but when he doesn't, Kimura speaks to Gukai, the priest. Gukai is a wonderful character, a powerful, independent woman of advanced years whose rigorous Zen practice has taken her beyond gender roles. She takes charge of Ryota's future with impervious command, leaving his father and mother to cope with this abrupt and irrevocable change in their heretofore ordinary lives. This gentle tale illuminates certain aspects of the Zen tradition as well as the type of sacrifices that devotion to spiritual matters entails. Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: Tuttle Pub
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0804820600
• ISBN 13: 9780804820608
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 102