Mugai Nyodai

{{Short description|Japanese Zen master}}

File:Yoshitoshi - 100 Aspects of the Moon - 74.jpg's Lady Chiyo (Nyodai) and the Broken Water Bucket]]

Mugai Nyodai ({{langx|ja|無外如大}}, 1223–1298), was one of the first Zen abbesses and the first female Zen master in Japan. A disciple of Mugaku Sogen, she organized convents and spread the lessons of Rinzai Zen.{{cite web|url=http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art46823.asp |title=Mugai Nyodai, Zishou Miaozong 資壽妙總; 1095–1170. First Woman to Head a Zen Order – Buddhism |publisher=Bellaonline.com |accessdate=11 November 2011}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/22/nyregion/japanese-zen-master-honored-by-her-followers.html |title=Japanese Zen Master Honored by Her Followers |work=The New York Times |date=22 November 1998 |accessdate=11 November 2011}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0ni1NmbYe0C&q=%22mugai+nyodai+was+born%22&pg=PA38 |title=Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan |first=William E. |last=Deal |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780195331264}} The only surviving written accounts of her life date to more recent centuries, and so many details of her biography are unclear.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Fister |first=Patricia |encyclopedia=Women, Rites, and Ritual Objects in Premodern Japan |title=Commemorating Life and Death: The Memorial Culture Surrounding the Rinzai Zen Nun Mugai Nyodai |date=5 July 2018 |pages=269–303 |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/9789004368194_009 |isbn=9789004368194 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004368194/BP000011.xml}}