Suzuki returned to Japan in 1909 as lecturer of English at Imperial University and professor of English at Gakushuin (Peers' School). In 1921 he left these posts to become professor of English and Buddhist philosophy at Otani University, Kyoto, where he received an honorary D.Litt. In the same year he founded the journal The Eastern Buddhist. While at Otani University he became known in the West through a variety of publications, including the three volume Essays in Zen Buddhism (1927-1934) and The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk (1934), but especially his translation of the Lankavatara Sutra (1932) and his book Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture (1938).He remained at Otani University until he began an active retirement in 1940. During World War II he was under suspicion of the Japanese government for his opposition to militarism, but in 1949 he was made a member of the Japanese Academy and decorated by the emperor with the Cultural Medal. Following the war 20 of his works on Zen and Buddhism were published in England and the United States, consisting of monographs and collections of essays. He travelled and lectured at universities in the United States and Europe during the 1950s and died in Kamakura on July 12, 1966, leaving numerous unpublished manuscripts.
