SAMURAI ZEN: the Warrior Koans brings together 100 of the rare riddles which represent the core spiritual discipline of Japan's ancient Samurai tradition. Dating from the thirteenth-century these records of Japan's Kamakura temples, are traditionally guarded with a secrecy, and they reflect the earliest manifestation of pure Zen in Japan. Created by Zen Masters for their warrior pupils the Japanese koans use incidents from everyday life - a broken tea-cup, a water-jar, a cloth - to bring the warrior pupils of the Samurai to the Zen realization.