Soto Zen in Medieval Japan Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism Studies in Ch ’an and Hua-yen Robert M. Gimello and Peter N. Gregory Dogen Studies William R. LaFleur The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch ’an Buddhism John R. McRae Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism Peter N. Gregory Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought Peter N. Gregory Buddhist Hermeneutics Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Paths to Liberation: The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought Robert E. Buswell, Jr., and Robert M. Gimello Studies in East Asian Buddhism $ Soto Zen in Medieval Japan William M. Bodiford A Kuroda Institute Book University of Hawaii Press • Honolulu © 1993 Kuroda Institute All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 93 94 95 96 97 98 5 4 3 2 1 The Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values is a nonprofit, educational corporation, founded in 1976. One of its primary objectives is to promote scholarship on the historical, philosophical, and cultural ramifications of Buddhism. In association with the University of Hawaii Press, the Institute also publishes Classics in East Asian Buddhism, a series devoted to the translation of significant texts in the East Asian Buddhist tradition. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bodiford, William M. 1955- Sotd Zen in medieval Japan / William M. Bodiford. p. cm.—(Studies in East Asian Buddhism ; 8) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8248-1482-7 l.Sotoshu—History. I. Title. II. Series. BQ9412.6.B63 1993 294.3’927—dc20 92-37843 CIP University of Hawaii Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources Designed by Kenneth Miyamoto For B. N. B. and S. W. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/sotozeninmedievaOOOObodi Contents Preface ix Stylistic Conventions xv Acknowledgments xvii Abbreviations xix 1. Introduction 1 Part One: early soto communities 2. Dogen: The Founder of Eiheiji 21 3. Giin: The Beginnings of Higo Soto 37 4. Senne and Kyogd: Commentators on Dogen’s Shobo genzo 44 5. Gikai: The Founder of Daijoji 51 6. Jakuen and Giun: Local Growth and Ties to Eiheiji 65 7. Early Schisms: The Question of the Sandai Sown 70 8. Keizan: The Founder of Yokoji 81 Part Two: regional expansion 9. Sojiji: The New Institutional Center 95 10. The Popularization of Soto 108 11. Formation of the Soto Order 122 Part Three: soto zen practice 12. KoanZen 143 13. Precepts and Ordinations 163 14. Zen Funerals 185 15. Conclusion 209 Notes 217 Bibliography 283 Glossary 309 Index 331 vii Preface The Soto school is the largest Buddhist organization in modern Japan. It ranks with the various Pure Land schools as one of the most successful of the new Buddhist denominations that emerged during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (roughly thirteenth-sixteenth centuries). During this medieval period Soto monks developed new forms of monastic organization, new methods of Zen instruction, and new applications for Zen rituals within lay life—many of which lie outside our received image of Zen. These developments played a profound role in medieval rural society and helped shape present-day Buddhist customs for a vast num¬ ber of Japanese. Yet in spite of its significance for enriching our under¬ standing of Japanese religion, medieval Soto has remained largely unknown, even among specialists. Most Western descriptions of Japa¬ nese Zen either ignore Soto completely or equate Soto exclusively with the teachings of Dogen (the school’s nominal founder), even though modern Soto practices continue many medieval-period elements un¬ known to Dogen or even foreign to his teachings. In focusing on these later developments, this book attempts to illuminate how Soto Zen (and rural Zen in general) functioned as a religion within the context of medie¬ val Japanese society. In the course of this study I became convinced that it is crucial to approach the study of Japanese Zen in the same way that one studies any other aspect of Japanese religion. On the surface this proposition proba¬ bly seems obvious enough. Traditional Zen scholarship, however, has emphasized ideals over actual practices and Chinese antecedents over Japanese conventions. Most discussions of Japanese Zen proceed from the assumption that it can be explained best as a continuation of Chinese traditions, totally severed from the religious and cultural context of Japan. Such discussions follow the lead of early Japanese Zen leaders, who strongly emphasized their connections to China. Yet our awareness IX X Preface of the importance of China as a source of legitimization in Japanese Zen ideology should caution us against too one-sided a focus on Zen’s foreign roots. After all, the new Japanese Zen institutions developed in an over¬ all cultural matrix very different from that of China, served Japanese patrons, and even in the beginning housed primarily (almost exclusively in the case of Soto) Japanese monks. We must bare in mind that Chinese traditions, the way in which these Chinese traditions were perceived by Japanese monks, and the actual conditions of Japanese Zen cannot auto¬ matically be equated. In my emphasis on this Japanese context, I do not mean to suggest that every significant element originated in Japan or lacks parallel historical examples in other Buddhist cultures. Nor do I intend to suggest that Zen somehow gradually became more “Japanese.” What I do intend to suggest is that our understanding of Zen in Japanese religious life will be incomplete unless we extend our analyses to include the larger cultural milieu within which Zen practices occur. The critical study of Japanese Zen Buddhism is less than one hundred years old. Although certain prewar scholars, such as Kuriyama Taion (1860-1937) and Washio Junkyo (1868-1939), still can be read with profit (if one is cautious), the contours of the historical landscape were mapped first by the generation of Japanese scholars that emerged during and just following the Second World War. At that time, the work of a few exceptional historians—Okubo Doshu, Suzuki Taizan, Tamamura Take- ji, and Tsuji Zennosuke—formulated the interpretations that would become the accepted standards for the postwar era. Even today no one should study Japanese Zen history without consulting their works. In this book, however, their names are cited only rarely and their interpreta¬ tions are mostly ignored. Such lacunae do not indicate that I am not in debt to their scholarship. Indeed, I am. But they do indicate that the range of new sources now available has allowed a different historical landscape to emerge. Newly discovered texts have raised issues and revealed events unknown to these men. New information has challenged their previously accepted analyses. The range of new sources is breathtaking. Many types of texts previ¬ ously ignored, such as secret initiation documents (kirikami), have become accessible for the first time. Other texts cited in previous studies have been republished in more trustworthy formats. Okubo Doshu him¬ self compiled and transcribed the first reliable edition of Dogen’s col¬ lected writings (Dogen Zenji zenshu, 2 vols., 1969-1970), as well as more than two thousand documents collected from Soto monasteries through¬ out Japan (Sotoshu komonjo, 3 vols., 1972). During 1970-1973, the Soto school not only reedited and enlarged its earlier (20 vols., 1929-1935) edi¬ tion of “The Complete Works of the Soto School” (SdtOshu zensho) but also published a ten-volume supplement of previously unavailable Preface xi works. During the same period, manuscript versions of Dogen’s ShObO genzo and related commentaries as well as the writings of early Soto patriarchs became available for the first time in their original form (Eihei shobo genzO shusho taisei, 25 vols., 1974-1982). Early manuscript copies of many individual texts (such as the DenkOroku, the Tokokuki, and the Kenzeiki) also were discovered and published in critical editions. As recently as 1990 the earliest known manuscript copy of Keizan’s TOkoku shingi was discovered among the remains of a temple fire. These newly available original sources are particularly significant because they reveal the inadequacies of the editions previously used by scholars. We now know that many of the Japanese Soto Zen texts first published during the Tokugawa period (and subsequently reprinted in the modern editions of Buddhist scripture) had been extensively edited. The order of textual entries might have been rearranged to fit what Toku- gawa-period Soto historians regarded as the correct sequence of events (e.g., the ShObO genzO Zuimonki, Tokokuki, and Kenzeiki). In many cases original citations of Chinese materials were “corrected” to agree with the Ming edition of the Buddhist canon (e.g., the “Shinji” ShObO genzO). Japanese passages were rewritten in Chinese form (e.g., the DenkOroku). When these standard editions later were used for the criti¬ cal study of Soto history, distortions could not be avoided. Discrepancies between different texts attributed to the same time period or to the same author forced mistaken judgments of textual authenticity. Without access to the original manuscripts, previous scholars had little choice but to follow inaccurate chronologies. More important, the questions being asked of these historical sources also have changed. In recent years a new generation of scholars has been examining Japanese Zen history and practices with greater vigor. It has become increasingly clear that Japanese Zen practice cannot be under¬ stood in isolation without consideration of other meditative and sha- manistic traditions in Japan. The roles of rural Zen temples must be ana¬ lyzed in the larger context of general medieval social developments. Sophisticated and systematic analyses of the place of Zen in the religious, social, and political lives of average monks and lay people must replace the simple recounting of the biographies of eminent monks.