Knowledge and Confucian Learning Pertaining to Zen Monks' Management of Shoen

Abstract

In the late medieval period Japan, Zen temples expanded their shoen (estates) and contracted the management of estates of other temples and nobles.Up to this point, it has been a foregone conclusion that this was a result of individual Zen monks'skill in estate management.However, because estate management by Zen temples is seen extensively throughout the entire Zen Sect, it is essencial to consider not only the contribution of individual Zen monks but also the ways in which the Zen temple organizations participated in estate management.Thereupon, taking note of the "knowledge" transmitted among Zen priests within the Zen temples, the author of the article considers whether or not there was something included in this "knowledge" that was related to estate management skills, then the way in which this "knowledge" was comunicated by monks, and family how it was put into practice and applied to estate management.Unsho Ikkei雲章一慶, a priest of Tofukuji東福寺 temple, gave lectures regarding shingi(清規 regulations of the Zen Sect), and one of his disciples Togen Zuisen桃源瑞仙 recorded them in a book entitled Hajoshingi-sho百丈清規抄.In this work, there is description of shosu (荘主 overseers of Zen temples' estates), who were normally monks.This description is based on an actual case in which Tofukuji temple dismissed in 1444 the shosu of Kambara-go 上原郷 in Bicchu 備中.It shows the ways in which it was neccessary for the shosu to cooperate with shugo 守護 when undertaking estate management.Therefore, this is indicative of the fact that within the knowkedge transmitted among the Zen monks there was indeed something included that pertained toestate management.In those days there were many lectures on Confucial learning given at Zen temples, includings the lectures on Hajoshingi by Unsho Ikkei.In addition to Zen priests, court officials like Kiyohara Naritada 清原業忠, known as a master of Confucian learning, attended these lectures.As a result, they were able to exchange not only Confucian knowledge but also such practical knowledge as estate management skills.For ezample, the Zen monks who attended the Confucian lectures by Unsho Ikkei collaborated with Nakahara Yasutomi 中原康富, who was a court offical and a student of Kiyohara Naritada, in the administration of the latter's estate.The author concluded that Zen temples were able to ezpand their estate management activites because they had a system in which Zen priests learned practical knowledge was result of the interchange between the Zen monks and court officials.