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context: thematic routes > zen > sources
Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki
Suzuki may be the greatest scholar of Zen the world has seen, and this is a tremendous discussion of many of its facets, dealing well with all sorts of awkward problems. There is lots on the samurai-Zen links, and while I could have lived with several fewer 'Zen master untrained with sword defeats master swordsman who does not grasp Zen' stories, it's the best and most thorough examination of this strange link as I've ever seen. He's also very good on haiku, unpacking the multiple echoes and overtones of individual lines or even words in a revelatory manner. It's hard to resist skipping the odd section that seems to reiterate the same ideas yet again, but I don't imagine there are many better books to help one understand Zen and what it means to the Japanese.