Introduction
The End and Means of This Study
The end of this study is to [theoretically] expound teh conception and expression of the gardening in the Eiho-ji temple on Mt. Kokei through the Muchumondo (Questions and Answers in the Absolute Dream) by Muso-kokushi.
In the Muchu-mondo Muso-kokushi says that gardening is an expedient sermon that concretely shows the Buddha-mind, free from words and phrases or special transmission outside of the Buddha's. teachings; that none but those who through zazen realize the identity of self and others or find the all-creating source in the changes of the four seasons can appreciate the core of mountains, water, trees and springs [in the garden]; and that gardening leads a practitioner to the intuitive realization of his original Buddha-nature and the salvation of sentient beings...the ultimate end of Buddhism.
The realm of enlightenment, the primary meaning of Zen, has ever been expounded intuitively and and directly. In this case, words and phrases are always connected with truth. They utter the words “freedom from words and phrases” for fe ar that excessive theoretical dispute should bring truth to nothing, just as ivy and vine mantle a big tree to its death. But the garden of a Zen monastery is a means by which we can give up the attachment to words and phrases and attain the ultimate reality.
Muso-kokushi further says that a talk about the conception and expression of the gardening is against the original meaning of Zen. To expound theoretically, therefore, the conception and expression of it, we need a practical and intuitive realization. In this case, it is by a scientic strictness throngh historical materials that we can exactly certify subjective and intuitive realization [of truth]. Consequently, through visionary intuition and historical materials, I am going to expound [theoretically] the conception and expression of the gardening in the Eiho-ji temple on Mt. Kokei.
Zen is, as mentioned above, beyound words and phrases. But, on the other hand, they have hitherto made, happy to say, the most earnest efforts to express their realm of enlightenment through the versified comments, Zen literature or Zen paintings. If we study the garden of a Zen monastery from this original viewpoint of Zen, we shall find that the allotment of land, the structure of stones, or plantations represent their true merits beyond words and phrases. This forms the most pertinent index to the process of this study.
The Summary of the Garden of the Eiho-ji Temple
The subject of this garden shows the long atrict practice after enlightenment...the fundamental thought of Rinzai-Zen based on the Rinzai-roku...by Muso-kokushi, founder of the Kokei-an; the conception of it shows the thorough realization of his true Self through zanen stemming from the Rozan-ki (A Guide of Lu-shan); the structure ex-presses the realm of the original enlightenment based on the Shodo-ka (The Song of Enlightenment) by Yoka-daishi. This is the garden of the Rinzai Zen monastery where we walk about trees and springs.

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According to the annual table of Muso-kokushi, in showa 2 (AC 1313) he came to the Totomi province from the Jogo-ji temle, along with his six or seven follow-practitioners, such as Hongen Gen-o' Kokumon Funi, So-yo and so on, and finally reached Mt. Nagase whose solitary scenery attracted him a great deal. It is said that he built a hermitage here and called it Kokei (Ancient Valley) against the intention of his master Kennichi Koho to make him the chief monke of the Choraku-ji temple in the Kozuke province.
But according to the history book of Toki city, unlike the above annual table, Musokokushi is the second chief monk of the Jorin-ji temple whose lay founder is Yorizane Toki, lord of the Toki district, and invited found is Sogen Mugaku, and the first monk founder is Kennichi Koho. Consequently, the Kokei-an is considered to have been built as an annex hermitage of the Jorin-ji temple and the six or seven fellow-practitioners of Mushokokushi came to help this kokushi with his managing the hermitage.
Here Muso-kokushi applied himself to the “long strict practice after enlightement”, while Hongen Gen-o and Myogen Jusan were engaged in the temple affairs of the Jorin-ji temple. Especially the former, invited by Yorisaa Toki before the annual table of Muso-kokushi, accepted the bones of the predecessor Mitsusada Toki and performed a memorial service at the 33rd anniversary of his death. Furthermore, he built another annex hermitage named Fuso-an where the image of the founder Sogen Mugaku was located and his bones were dedicated. This memorial service was performed in Showa 1 (1312) and the next year but one the Kannon temple of the Kokeian was built.
About the situation of defence of the then Toki clan, Sanrei Shigemori, a researcher of “the gardening when the Toki clan was in the mansion” and garden of the Eiho-ji temple, says: “with the Tki market as a center, they built the Fukazawa castle in the norh-western part and the Tsuruga castl in the northern, Mt. Kamado commanding the Ena district. In the front place of the south there was there was the Mashiko castle ; in the west there were the positions of strategic importance, Such as Otomi, Asano, Takada and Tajimi. “(Cf. Toivorikaneko, p. 118).” This shows that there was no record that the Toki clan had the mansion on Mt. Nagase.
In the Buttoku-zenii-goroku by Hongen Gen-o there is a passage entitled “casual work on Mt. Kokei”: the surface of a mirror opehs newly and the water of a pond is clear...” This means that Muso-kokushi built a garden then in such a spiritual realm.
The Summury of the Garden of the Eiho-ji Temple
The subject of this garden srows the long strict practice after enlightenment...... the fundamental thought of Rinzai Zen based on the Rinzai-roku... by Muso-kokushi, founder of the Kokei-an ; the conception of it shows the thorough realization of true Self through zazen stemming from the Rozanki (A Guide of Lu-Shan); the structure expresses the realm of the original enlightenment based on the Shodo-ka (The Song of Enlightenment) by Yokadaishi. This is the garden of the Rinzai Zen monastery where we walk about trees and springs.

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