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As noted in the preface, we are here concerned with the continuity of serious Rinzai Zen practice at Matsugaoka To\keiji during its long history, while giving the popular caricature of “divorce temple” its due—but no more than that. Popular views over time tend to define all historical “facts” unless and until these are consciously challenged with conflicting evidence. But the familiar popular images still remain: George Washington will forever be seen by posterity as having cut down that cherry tree, in spite of any contrary evidence. We have seen To\keiji convent established in 1285 with close ties to the neighboring Engakuji temple, built three years earlier for Wu-hsüeh Tsu-yüan (Mugaku Sogen), Rinzai Zen spiritual adviser to Kakusan Shido\ and her husband, Ho\jo\ Tokimune (preface and chapter 3). Wu-hsüeh has high praise for both of them as spiritual disciples in his Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Fo-kuang [Bukko\, Wu-hsüeh’s honorific title]; and Word Weeds in Southern Sagami Province (Sho\nan katto\ roku, 1544), by Rinzai monk Muin Ho\jo\, records the exercises of Kakusan and her successors . Hideyori’s daughter, later the convent’s twentieth abbess, Tenshu\ Ho\tai (1608–1645), maintains the integrity of the tradition in denouncing warrior Kato\ Yoshiaki for violating To\keiji’s right of sanctuary; and her correspondence, however brief, with monk Takuan (1573–1645) on matters of Zen practice argues for its continuing vitality (chapter 5). And when a woman complained to Bankei Yo\taku (1622–1693; see chaper 2) that women were not permitted to enter such sacred places as Mt. Ko\ya and Mt. Hiei because they were considered to be spiritually inferior to men, he replied that there was a nunnery in Kamakura from which men were barred.1 And the popular linked-verse (senryu\; chapter 7) of the Edo townsman can inadvertently confirm the spartan regulations observed at the convent. Even temporary residents waiting for Letters of Separation had to have their locks shorn: Matsugaoka at Matsugaoka wara de yuute mo fastening hair even with straw koishigari betrays attachment 95 Everyday Life at Matsugaoka To\keiji: Sacred and Secular 6 The food was strictly vegetarian, of course: tachimono wa among the items otoko soshite for abstention are: men, gyorui nari and all kinds of fish In short, we have considerable supporting evidence from which to reconstruct a picture of daily life at the To\keiji. For the first five centuries after its founding, the convent was basically an independent institution run by and for nuns, although under the guidance of its sibling Engakuji monastery. From the mid-Edo period, however, life at the To\keiji involved two additional groups: women seeking divorce, and the secular administrators (Inryo\ken). Our main concern here, however, is the convent life of nuns following the Engakuji’s Rinzai Zen monastic rules as adapted for women in a nunnery. In the early days of founder Kakusan Shido\ and nuns described in Tangled Weeds we see little or no gender discrimination with respect to religious practice, however this might manifest itself more subtly at the social level, especially in an expanding Neo-Confucian social context. Daisetz Suzuki (1870–1966) comments at the beginning of the first chapter of The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk (1934) that he was writing the work while living on the grounds of the Engakuji. He goes on to detail not only the theoretical framework of Rinzai Zen practice but also many of the practical aspects of monastic life, so rarely found in books on Buddhism. The work also includes forty-three illustrations by Sato\ Zenchu\ (1883–1935), abbot of the To\keiji following Ko\gaku So\en (see chapter 8). Suzuki was close friends with So\en, established his Matsugaoka Library (Bunko) on the rise just behind the To\keiji, and is buried below in the convent ’s bamboo-shaded graveyard. Given the close connections between the Engakuji and the To\keiji for over seven centuries, there is probably no better guide to some general sense of everyday life at the convent than the account Suzuki wrote a few hundred yards away—bearing in mind, of course, that the operations of convent and monastery can never be identical. The following are paraphrased selections adapted from his book, with a couple of Zenchu\ illustrations.2 MEDITATION The Meditation Hall (zendo\), as it is built in Japan, is generally a rectangular building of variable size according to the number...

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