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Zen Buddhism and Muromachi Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

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When tea ceremony, flower arrangement, Noh drama, linked verse (renga), monochrome painting, and dry-landscape gardening are said to represent Japanese culture, it is usually assumed that they were produced and fostered by Zen Buddhism. If we are fully to understand these art forms, we must therefore make a systematic study of their relationship to Zen. The particular species of Zen diat is said to have produced and fostered these arts is the Rinzai Zen developed by Muso at the beginning of the Muromachi Period (1336–1573) when Zen first became a pervasive influence in the cultural history of Japan. Let us look, then, at the position of Muromachi Zen in the history of Japanese Buddhism.

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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1963

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References

1 Taishō shinshū daizōkyō [Newly Revised Tripitaka of the Taishō Era] (Tokyo, 19241932)Google Scholar, LXXXIV. The Ōjō yōshū consists of ten chapters. The first two, which describe hells and paradises, have been translated by August Karl Reischauer and published together with a biographical and bibliographical introduction under the tide “Genshin's Ojo Yoshu: Collected Essays on Birdi into Paradise,” TASJ, 2nd Series, VII (1930), 1697.Google Scholar

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4 Taishō shinshū datzōkyō, LXXXIII. Hōnen's official biography has been translated in Coates, Harper Havelock and Ishizuka, Ryugaku, Hōnen, the Buddhist Saint. His Life and Teachings (Kyoto, 1925).Google Scholar

5 Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, LXXXIII.

6 No copies of the sesshu fusha mandara are extant, but the arrangement can be inferred from contemporary descriptions. See my Jōdo-kyō bijutsu [Pure-Land Sect An] (Kyoto, 1958), 139141.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., 179–184.

8 Zengaku taikei [Compendium of Zen Learning] (Tokyo, 1912), IV.Google Scholar

9 Musō Shōgaku shinjū fusai kokushi goroku, in Kokuyaku zengaku taisei [Compendium of Zen Learning with Japanese Translations] (Tokyo, 1930), XXIII, 7374.Google Scholar

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14 Dai Nihon bukkyō zensho (Tokyo, 1912), CXXXIV, 803Google Scholar. The Onryōken (Gallery of Shady Coolness) was the central control office of the Zen Sect, located in the Rokuon Cloister inside the Shōkokuji Monastery at Kyoto. The surviving portions of its business journal cover the period from 1435 to 1493.

15 Such a painting is in the collection of die Shōjōkō-in in Kyoto.

16 Shisetsu jiken shū [Collection of the Master's Explanations and My Own Views], Zoku gunsho ruijū (Tokyo, 1912), XVII, 129130Google Scholar. The Shisetsu jiken shū is a handbook and critique of Japanese poetry.

17 Karine no susami [Notes Dashed Off between Naps on the Road], Zoku gunsho ruijū, XVII, 21.Google Scholar

18 Taken from a renga contest of one hundred rounds (hyakuban renga awase) in the Seikadō collection.

19 Zoku gunsho ruijū, XVII (Tokyo, 19:2), 1095.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., XIV (Tokyo, 1910), 675.

21 In the collection of the Myōshin-ji of Kyoto.

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25 Illustrated in the early Kamakura picture scroll, Yamai no sōshi [Booklet of Diseases], which depicts human beings suffering from various illnesses and deformities. In Nihon e-makimono shūsei [Collection of Japanese Picture Scrolls] (Tokyo, 1930), IX.Google Scholar

26 At the end of Chapter 29. See Sankō taiheiki [Collated Versions of the Taiheiki] (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1914), II, 322323Google Scholar. The first twelve chapters of the Taiheiki have been translated by McCullough, Helen Craig, The Taiheiki, a Chronicle of Medieval Japan (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

27 Chirizuka monogatari [Dust-Heap Tales], in Kaitei shiseki shūran [Collection of Historical Works Revised], X (Tokyo, 1901), 35Google Scholar. The Chirizuka monogatari, dated 1552, contains anecdotes of the late Muromachi period.

28 Section 189.

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30 The first interpretative history of Japan, written by the priest Jien (1155–1225). See Shintei zōho kokushi taikei, XIX (1930)Google Scholar. The last portion has been translated by Rahder, J., “Miscellany of Personal Views of an Ignorant Fool (Guk(w)anshō,” Acta Orientalia, XV (1936), 173230.Google Scholar

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32 Chirizuka monogatari (see note 31), 110.Google Scholar

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34 Shinkokinshū [New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern], Chapter 1.

35 Sōkon shū [Anthology of Grass Roots], Chapter 11, in Tankaku sōsho (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1912), IV, 41Google Scholar. This poem was composed by Shōtetsu (1381–1459).

36 For picture see colored illustration No. 1 in Zusetsu Nihon bunka shi taikei, VII. The Mitsumura Suiko Shoin of Kyoto has also announced a forthcoming scries entitled The Zen Gardens.