By the time of Tokimuni's premature death in 1284, Rinzai Zen had been
effectively established as the faith of the Kamakura rulers. His
successor continued the development of Zen establishments, supported by
new Chinese masters who also began teaching Chinese culture
(calligraphy, literature, ink painting, philosophy) to the Kamakura
warriors along with their Zen. Since the faith was definitely beginning
to boom, the government prudently published a list of restrictions for
Zen monasteries, including an abolition of arms (a traditional problem
with the other sects) and a limit on the number of pretty boys
(novices) that could be quartered in a compound to tempt the monks. The
maximum number of monks in each monastery also was prescribed, and
severe rules were established governing discipline. Out of this era in
the late thirteenth century evolved an organization of Zen temples in
Kyoto and Kamakura based on the Sung Chinese model of five main
monasteries (called the "five mountains" or _gozan_) and a network of
ten officially recognized subsidiary temples. Furthermore, Chinese
culture became so fashionable in Kamakura that collections of Sung art
began appearing among the illiterate provincial warriors--an early
harbinger of the Japanese evolution of Zen from asceticism to
aesthetics.6
The creation of the _gozan _system at the end of the thirteenth century
gave Zen a formal role in the religious structure of Japan. Zen was now
fashionable and had powerful friends, a perfect
combination to foster growth and influence. On the sometimes pointed
urging of the government, temples from other sects were converted to
Zen establishments by local authorities throughout Japan.7 The court and
aristocracy in Kyoto also began taking an interest in pure, Sung-style
Rinzai. Temples were built in Kyoto (or converted from other sects),
and even the cloistered emperors began to meditate (perhaps searching
less for enlightenment than for the rumored occult powers). When the
Kamakura regime collapsed in the mid-fourteenth century and warriors of
the newly ascendent Ashikaga clan returned the seat of government to
Kyoto, the old capital was already well acquainted with Zen's political
importance. However, although Rinzai Zen had made much visible headway
in Japan--the ruling classes increasingly meditated on koans, and
Chinese monks operated new Sung-style monasteries--the depth of
understanding seems disappointingly superficial overall. The _gozan
_system soon turned so political, as monasteries competed for official
favor, that before long establishment Zen was almost devoid of
spiritual content. In many ways, Japanese Zen became decadent almost
from the start. The immense prestige of imported Chinese art and ideas,
together with the powerful role of the Zen clerics as virtually the
only group sufficiently educated to oversee relations with the
continent, meant that early on, Zen's cultural role became as telling
as its spiritual place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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