Letting Go

Notes to Text, Notes to Poems

Notes to Text Abbreviations DNBZ Suzuki Gakujutsu Zaidan, ed. Dai Nihon Bukkyò zensho.Tokyo, 1970–1973. SSZ Sòtòshû zensho kankòkai, ed. Sòtòshû zensho.Tokyo, 1929–1936. T Takakusu Junjirò et al., eds. Taishò shinshû daizòkyò.Tokyo: 1914–1922. Preface 1. Full title: Tribute to the Life of Master Tòsui of Takagamine on the Northern Outskirts of the Imperial City (Hokuraku Takagamine Tòsui oshò densan); shortened title: Tòsui oshò densan, or simply Densan. In SSZ, 17:327–364. 2.Tanaka Tadao, Kòjiki Tòsui, 98. 3. MiyazakiYasuemon, Yasei Tòsui oshò, 199. 4.Tanaka Tadao, Kòjiki Tòsui, 2. 5. Densan, 328–329. 6.The term “Dharma brother” (hòtei) refers here to one’s brother disciples under a particular Buddhist teacher, in this instance Tòsui’s transmission teacher, the Sòtò master Igan Sòtetsu (n.d.). 7. Tòsui oshò den (Biography of Master Tòsui), in Jûzoku nichi iki tòjò shosoden (1717), by Zòsan Ryòki (n.d.). In DNBZ, 70:282c; and Sesshû Hòganji Tòsui Unkei zenji (Zen Master Tòsui Unkei of Hòganji in Settsu Province), in Nihon Tòjò rentò roku (1727), by Ryònan Shûjo (1645–1752), DNBZ, 71:93a–93b.A translation of Tòsui oshò den appears in the appendix, p. 121–123. 8.The Tribute records only four fixed dates for Tòsui’s biography:Tòsui’s transmission from his teacher in 1657; his abbacy at Sòjiji the following year; his conferring of the bodhisattva precepts on his disciple Zekan in 1662; and his death in Kyoto in 1683. 9. See below, p. 146, n. 1. Introduction 1.The issue of precisely what is meant by the terms medieval or Middle Ages ( J. chûsei) in the context of Japanese history and Japanese Buddhism remains a subject of scholarly debate. For convenience’ sake, I have adopted the traditional meaning of the 125 terms, as referring to the years spanning the Kamakura (1192–1333) and Muromachi (1333–1600) periods. For an overview of the different formulations, see Kokushi daijiten henshû iinkai, ed., Kokushi daijiten (Tokyo, 1988), 9:502c–d. 2. SeeYampolsky, Zen Master Hakuin, 11–16, 27; Isshû and Sasaki, Zen Dust, 25, 28–30; and Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, 2:367, 381–385, 393. 3. Background information on the Sòtò revival of the early Tokugawa period is drawn from Furuta Shòkin, “Dokuan Genkò no shisò”; Kagamishima Genryû, “Nihon zenshûshi: Sòtòshû,” 114–121; idem, Dògen zenji to sono monryû, 67–49; idem, Manzan/Menzan, 18:15–42, 60–69; Kurebayashi Kòdò, “Shishòron ni okeru Tenkei no shisòteki genryû”; and Bodiford, “Dharma Transmission in Sòtò Zen.” 4. Manzan uses the term “chûko” (recent antiquity), which he subsequently specifies to mean “over the last two hundred years.” Shûtò fukkoshi, in Sòtòshû zensho kanokòkai, ed., Zoku Sòtòshû zensho, 1:538a and 539a, respectively.The work, composed in 1741 by Manzan’s disciple Sanshû Hakuryû (1669–1760), opens with Manzan’s point-by-point assessment of the problems confronting the Sòtò transmission. 5. Ibid. 6.The movement identified with the views of Manzan and his colleagues became known as shûtò fukko, “restoration of the [Sòtò] sect’s authentic transmission.” Manzan’s views on the transmission are also presented in his work Tòmon ejoshû, SSZ, 15:119–131. 7. Shûtò fukkoshi, in Zoku Sòtòshû zensho, 1:539a–539b. 8. Dokuan kò, SSZ, 5:728. Dokuan’s reference to “paper transmission” appears in the following sentence: “A paper transmission is not a transmission of mind.And a secret oral transmission is not the special transmission outside the scriptures.” Ibid. 9. Ibid., 587. 10.Yün-mèn Wèn-yen (862/4–949). 11. Wu-mèn kuan, case 21,T.48:295c. 12. Chao-chou Ts’ung-shèn (778–897). 13.That is, what is the truth that Bodhidharma (d. 532), the first patriarch and semilegendary founder of Ch’an, brought from India to China. 14. Wu-mèn kuan, case 37,T.48:297c. 15. Background material for the following general outline of Zen in the Kamakura period and the Muromachi Gozan is based on Akamatsu andYampolsky, “Muromachi Zen and the Gozan System”; Bielefeldt, “Recarving the Dragon”; Collcutt, Five Mountains, 25–89; Faure, “The Daruma shû, Dògen and Sòt...