Born in 1226 in Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo, Zhejiang), a Song-dynasty monk of the Rinzai school. Training under successive masters, he became a leading Zen teacher. He is famous for the episode in which, when Yuan soldiers pressed blades against him during their invasion of Southern Song, he remained utterly calm and said "Makubonno" (Do not be troubled). In 1279, he came to Japan at the earnest invitation of the eighth regent Hojo Tokimune. Tokimune had assumed the regency at a young age and faced the crushing pressure of two Mongol invasions (Bun'ei no Eki, 1274; Koan no Eki, 1281). Mugaku became Tokimune's Zen master, tempering his spirit with the teaching of "Makubonno" and steeling his resolve to face the national crisis. After the Mongol threat receded, Tokimune built Engaku-ji (Yamanouchi, Kamakura) in 1282 to pray for the war dead of both Japan and the Mongol side, and Mugaku became its founding abbot. He died at Engaku-ji in 1286 at age 61. The teacher-and-student bond between Mugaku and Hojo Tokimune is regarded as a symbol of the meeting of Zen and the warrior spirit, deeply imprinted in the history of Kamakura Zen.