With tender and grateful hearts, we hear of Mitsu Suzuki’s decline in health. Her grandson Shungo Suzuki reports that she has been hospitalized and is not likely to recover. She is 101 years old.
Mitsu Suzuki is the widow of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, the founder of San Francisco Zen Center. A former resident and beloved teacher of tea ceremony at City Center, she is the author of two collections of haiku: “A White Tea Bowl: 100 Haiku from 100 Years of Life” and “Temple Dusk: Zen Haiku.”
We will share news about Mitsu Suzuki, or Okusan as her students endearingly call her, as we receive it from her family, here and in Sangha News: blogs.sfzc.org
This slideshow, published in April of 2014 in celebration of Mitsu’s 100th birthday, offers a brief retrospective of her years with San Francisco Zen Center: http://blogs.sfzc.org/…/04/01/mitsu-suzuki-100-years-photos/
The great temple bell rings
one hundred eight times—
May there be peace!
—Mitsu Suzuki, “A White Tea Bowl: 100 Haiku from 100 Years
http://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2016/01/09/mitsu-suzuki-passes-away-aged-101/
Reality is Dharma 