Zensation

As they begged alms last week in the Japanese city of Kobe, Zen Buddhist monks from the great temple of Shofukuji (Good Omen) met an unusual reception. Instead of showing reverence, people cracked seemingly typical Zen koans (problem riddles). "You look like the one who was admiring nude pictures," giggled one housewife, slamming the door in a novice priest's face. Snapped another tart-tongued woman: "Wash out your mind before I fill your bowl."

The sneers and jeers were caused by the worst scandal in the temple's 300-year history. Last June Photographer Mikio Tsuchiya got permission to record life in the temple, planned impressive exhibits in the U.S., where enthusiasm for Zen's ego-smashing techniques has become a semi-religious phenomenon (TIME, Feb. 4, 1957 et seg.). Tsuchiya expected to find the temple's 30 pate-shaven novices undergoing the most Spartan life imaginable, for Zen is the harshest branch of Buddhism, and Shofukuji itself has a reputation as one of Zen's most austere temples.

This month Photographer Tsuchiya published his pictures. Samples: loinclothed priests playing mah-jongg instead of sitting in immobile meditation, a priest drinking with a bar hostess, two novices staggering along a Kobe street late at night with a barmaid between them. Tsuchiya quoted one priest as saying: "By listening to good music and gazing on ikibosatu [the living Buddha], I feel I can understand the teachings." This wisdom was Tsuchiya's caption for a photograph of the same priest happily gaping at pictures of virtually naked women.

Amid the general shock, some novices made matters worse by loud self-justification (in itself an unZen act). Wailed one: "When we sit long hours in meditation, the blood tends to collect around our loins. It's natural for us to seek outlets." That was no surprise to some cynical Japanese, who say that novice Zen priests often slip anchor at night after the temple supervisor goes home. Many steer straight for the local brothel, where the madam courteously bundles them inside without obtrusive haggling at the door. Others hold frequent cookouts near the temple, wolfing down undercover banquets to fatten a temple diet of soybean soup and boiled radishes.

At week's end the embarrassed temple council set about saving face in the best Japanese tradition. Photographer Tsuchiya agreed to apologize publicly and destroy all his negatives. The two novices pictured most revealingly agreed to expulsion--and then reinstatement. Head Priest Mumon Yamada blamed it all on an influx of university-trained novices who lack moral fiber. Lamented Yamada: It was not so in the old days, when novices were poor boys without education or appetite for soft living.

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