McCandless (Ruth Strout) collection on Nyogen SenzakiThe Ruth Strout McCandless collection on Nyogen Senzaki contains materials related to Ruth McCandless's collaboration and association with Nyogen Senzaki and the American Zen Buddhist movement. Senzaki (1876-1958) was a Japanese Zen monk who left Japan for the United States in 1905. Senzaki lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, and played an important role in the formative years of the American Zen Buddhist movement. Ruth Strout McCandless was a South Pasadena resident who in 1941 became a disciple of Senzaki and later became a major scholar of Japanese Buddhism studies in the United States. The collection consists of correspondence, photographs, ephemera, books, business records, artwork, and textiles. Also included are original manuscripts by Senzaki with transcriptions and edits by Ruth McCandless, correspondence from Senzaki to McCandless during his incarceration in the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, a traditional Zen Buddhist Kesa robe, and a decorative scroll used in Senzaki's ministry.