The Zen Diary
2022 film directed by Yuji Nakae
The Zen Diary (Japanese: 土を喰らう十二ヵ月, romanized: Tsuchi o kurau jūni-kagetsu, lit. 'Twelve Months of Devouring Soil') is a 2022 film directed by Yuji Nakae. The film is an adaptation of the 1978 nonfiction book by Tsutomu Mizukami.
Summary
Elderly writer Tsutomu lives alone with his pet dog "Prickly-ash" in a mountain cottage in Shinshū. Having been sent to serve at a Zen temple at age nine where he learned Buddhist cuisine, he now grows his own vegetables, forages for edible wild plants, and cooks. He records this daily life in his manuscripts. Occasionally, his editor and young lover Machiko visits him, eating the meals he prepares with obvious relish. Tsutomu has yet to inter the ashes of his wife, Yaeko, who died thirteen years ago.
When Tsutomu visits Yaeko's mother, Chie, she reproaches him for not having built a grave for Yaeko. Chie later passes away. Her funeral is held at Tsutomu's mountain cottage.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Zen Diary” is 2022 film directed by Yuji Nakae. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Diary, film and directed, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “2022 film directed by Yuji Nakae” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122891181. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2022 and 1978.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Zen Diary”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Zen Diary primary sources, The Zen Diary archive and Diary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Zen Diary”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Zen Diary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.