Daijō-ji

This guide to Daijoji in Kanazawa follows the four-thirty morning bell that has called monks from their futons for centuries, and the Soto Zen discipline that treats sweeping, cooking and hauling water as forms of meditation rather than chores around it. It traces the priest Tettsu Gikai, a disciple of Dogen, who arrived in 1293 to turn an older temple into a working monastery, and the students who carried his standard forward. Overnight guests today are still handed a broom rather than a brochure, so listen for how little that arrangement has changed.