The Establishment of the Legitimate Position of the Japanese Zen Sect by Kokan Shiren: Reconstruction of Tōfukuji

Abstract

The Genkō Shakusho 元亨釈書 compiled in 1322 by Kokan Shiren 虎関師錬 (1278–1346) was written at the end of the Kamakura period and entered the Tripiṭaka through the efforts of Ryōsen Ryōzui 龍泉令淬 (?–1364), his disciple, in 1360. With an emphasis on the transformation of the Tōfukuji into a Zen temple at that time, it is thought that the Shōichi school (聖一派) needed to emphasize the legitimacy of its Zen. After the Shakusho’s inclusion in the Tripiṭaka, the legitimacy of Japanese Zen and the Shōichi sect, which Kokan advocated in the Genkō Shakusho, was secured by the establishment of the Sōroku system 僧録制度 immediately after the Kōryaku coup (1379).