For a subject in which words are considered an impediment to meditative insight, it is daunting just how many words are needed to explain Zen. It uncannily dodges any attempt at definition, and at least some exposure to the practice seems necessary before embarking on any worthwhile discussion of the subject.
Nonetheless, it is hard to imagine anything that has had a more profound influence on Japanese culture than Zen, apart from the natural world before the modern period. This is evident everywhere — in martial arts, tea ceremony, flower-arranging, Japanese architecture, garden design, noh drama — even in the scrubbed wood and clean lines of a sushi restaurant or the dancing calligraphy on its matchboxes.
Zen is also a "way," like those cultural pursuits, in which practice and experience are far more valuable than a manual. A Buddhist concept imported in the 13th century from China, Zen espouses spiritual enlightenment through meditation and other contemplative practices, and the realization of truth through intuition rather than intellect. We can see parallels in the otherwise inexplicable psychological processes of artistic creation.