Ikkyū Sōjun (1394–1481) was an eccentric, iconoclastic Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, poet, and artist who came to be known as Zen’s most famous “holy fool”. Known by his self-chosen moniker Crazy Cloud (Kyōun), he rejected the rigid, hypocritical institutionalization of the Rinzai Zen sect in favor of raw, unmediated experience. Today, he lives on in Japanese culture both as a revered enlightened mystic and as a legendary trickster folk hero.
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