Page 119 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

54 Letter (1274), is a recollection of the Chinese
Wuxue Zeyuan (1226-1286) priest's friendship with his Japanese disci-
hanging scroll; ink on paper ple Muzo Jóshó (1234-1306), a relative of
35.8x69.4(14x273/8) the regent Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263).
Kamakura period, 1283 Muzo, originally from Sagami province,
Engakuji, Kanagawa Prefecture went to China as a Zen student-pilgrim in
1252, and there in
1254, while studying at
Important Cultural Property Wanshouchan Si, on Mount Jing near
Wuxue Zeyuan (Mugaku Sogen in Japa- Hangzhou, he met Daxiu Zhengnian in
nese), also known as Zeyuan (Shigen in 1254. Muzo returned to Japan after four-
Japanese), was a Chinese monk of the Rin- teen years of traveling in China, and was
zai (Linji) school of Zen (Chan). A native followed not long after by Daxiu
of Mingzhou on the southeastern coast of Zhengnian.
China, he came to Japan in 1279, the year The text recounts their first meeting
the Chinese Southern Song Dynasty was at the place of their master Shiji Xinyue
overthrown by the Mongols, at the invita- (d. 1254), their ensuing friendship, and
tion of HÔjô Tokimune (1251-1284), regent their reunion after Zhengnian's arrival in
of the Kamakura shogunate. Appointed Japan. It also relates Muzô's visit in 1274 to
abbot of Kenchôji in Kamakura, Zeyuan Hôgenji in Sagami Province, where
taught Zen to Tokimune and many other Zhengnian was abbot: Muzo asked
warriors. When Tokimune founded Enga- Zhengnian to add a preface to a scroll of
kuji in 1282, Zeyuan was appointed its poems by Chinese monks on the theme of
founding abbot. the Stone Bridge at Mount Tiantai, the
This letter from Wuxue Zeyuan to great Buddhist center in Zhejiang Prov-
Hôjô Tokimune was written in 1283, the ince that Muzo had visited. The poem
year after the founding of Engakuji, scroll itself is lost, though the first half of
though dated only to the eighteenth day the poems are known through a later copy.
of the seventh month. Demonstrating the Zhengnian's calligraphy is an elegant ver-
friendship between the regent and the sion of the kaisho (regular, or standard)
Chinese monk, the letter thanks Toki- mode. The taut but dynamic structure of
mune for the shden (manors) offered to individual characters reflects the tradition
the temple, including the Tomita manor of of the great Northern Song Chinese callig-
Owari Province, and for the migydsho rapher Huang Tingjian (1045-1105). In the
(writ) that designated the temple as the quality of the brushstrokes, however,
shogunate's place of worship. Zhengnian, like Wuxue Zeyuan, was influ-
Zeyuan, who had a large number of enced by the style of Yan Zhenqing (709-
followers among Kamakura warriors, 784) of the Tang Dynasty. NYA
played an important role in transmitting to
Japan the contemporary Chinese calli- 56 The sobriquet Shun'oku
graphic style of the Song Dynasty, which and a dedicatory poem
was strongly influenced by the great callig- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)
rapher of the Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing hanging scrolls; ink on paper
(709-784). NYA
sobriquet, 34.0 x 77.7 (133/8 x 305/8);
55 Preface to poems poem, 35.2 x 74.4 (13 7/8,x 29^4)
Daxiu Zhengnian (1214-1288) Nanbokucho period, 1346
hanging scroll; ink on paper Rokuôin, Kyoto
32.4 x 110.0 (12 3/4 x 43 vy Important Cultural Property
Kamakura period, 1274 Muso Soseki (cat. 10) from Ise Province
Goto Museum, Tokyo was famous as a Zen priest, adviser to the
Important Cultural Property great and powerful of the shogunal and
imperial courts, calligraphier, painter, poet,
A Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) priest from the scholar, and garden designer. He first stud-
Zhejiang province in southeastern China, ied the Tendai and Shingon schools of
Daxiu Zhengnian (J:Daikyu Shônen) came Buddhism, and later converted to the Rin-
to Japan in 1269 at the invitation of the re- zai school of Zen. As a young Zen novice,
gent Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284), as had his he was briefly a student of the Chinese
countryman Wuxue Zeyuan (cat. 54). scholar-monk Yishan Yining (1247-1317), an
Zhengnian lived at the monasteries of association that was instrumental in Mu-
Zenkôji, Kenchôji, Jufukuji, and Engakuji, so's later scholarly and literary eminence
and became the founding abbot of Jôchiji, and leadership of the Gozan Bungaku, the
all in or around Kamakura. For nearly Sinophile literary movement centered
twenty years he promoted the Chinese around the Zen monasteries. He lived in
Song dynasty style of Zen among Kama- the major monasteries of Nanzenji in
kura warriors. His cultural as well as reli- Kyoto and Engakuji in Kamakura, but also
gious influence on Hojo Tbkimune and founded many temples and retreats in re-
Sadatoki (1271-1311) was profound. mote areas. In addition to establishing a
This document, dated to the fourth
month of the eleventh year of Bun'ei

106