Kokan Shiren
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Kokan Shiren (
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
: こかんしれん,
Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
: 虎関師錬; 9 May 1278 – 11 August 1347), Japanese
Rinzai The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...
Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
patriarch and celebrated poet. He preached Buddhism at the Imperial court, and was noted for his poetry in the
Literature of the Five Mountains The Gozan Bungaku or literature of the Five Mountains (Japanese: 五山文学) is the literature produced by the principal Zen (禅) monastic centers of in Kyoto and Kamakura, Japan. The term also refers to five Zen centers in China in Hangzhou ...
(''Gozan bungaku'') tradition. He was the compiler of a thirty-chapter Buddhist history, the '' Genko Shakusho'', the oldest extant account of Buddhism in Japan.


Biography

Kokan was the son of an officer of the palace guard and a mother of the aristocratic
Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during the ...
. At age eight he was placed in the charge of the
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
priest Hōkaku on Mt. Hiei. At age ten he was ordained there, but later began study with the Zen master Kian at the Nanzenji monastery. Kokan Shiren's talents came to the attention of the
Emperor Kameyama was the 90th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1260 through 1274. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his ''imina'') was . He was t ...
. At age seventeen he began extensive Chinese studies. Thus began a long career of travel and the establishment of Zen institutions all across Japan. He became abbot at many of the best Zen establishments. At the end of his life, the emperor Gomurakami conferred upon him the title ''kokushi'' or National Teacher. Yet in his writings Kokan showed an aloofness from prestige with a striving for inner freedom. The best of his poetry in Chinese dates from late in his life when he had withdrawn from ecclesiastical affairs. His poetry and essays were collected under the title ''Saihokushū''. He is also credited with other contributions to lexography in his lifetime. Kokan studied under the celebrated Chinese monk
Yishan Yining Yishan Yining (一山一寧, in Japanese: ''Issan Ichinei'') (1247 – 28 November 1317) was a Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to Japan. Before monkhood his family name was Hu. He was born in 1247 in Linhai, Taizhou, Zhejiang, China. He was ...
. Their relationship can be regarded as the beginning of the golden age of the Literature of the Five Mountains in Japan. He studied calligraphy under an additional Chinese master Huang Shangu. Other works include Japan's first rhymed verse ''Jubun-in-ryaku'' in five volumes, ''Kokan Osho Juzenshiroku'' in three volumes, and the eighteen-volume ''Butsugo Shinron''. A portrait of Kokan Shiren is in the Kaizoin of the
Tōfuku-ji is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. Tōfuku-ji takes its name from two temples in Nara, Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji.Japan ReferenceTōfuku-ji/ref> It is one of the Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto". Its ...
Temple in Kyoto, Japan. Kokan is noted for writing the '' Genko Shakusho'', the oldest extant account of Buddhism in Japan. In the introduction to the work, Kokan wrote that he was shamed into writing it after the Chinese monk Yishan Yining expressed his surprise that no such history existed in Japan. In 1322, he completed the ''Genko Shakusho''; it was completed in the '' Genko'' era, whence the era name in its title.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Genkō''" i
''Japan encyclopedia,'' p. 239.
/ref>


Rhymeprose on a Miniature Landscape Garden

Of great interest for the development of the
Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...
,
bonseki ''Bonseki'' (, "tray rocks") is the ancient Japanese art of creating miniature landscapes on black trays using white sand, pebbles, and small rocks. Small delicate tools are used in Bonseki such as feathers, small flax brooms, sifters, spoons ...
,
bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...
and related arts is Kokan Shirens rhymeprose essay ''Rhymeprose on a Miniature Landscape Garden''. Obvious influence can be seen from Chinese Song period literati. Kokan Shiren's deceptively simple and straightforward narration gave an early voice to what would become a profound cultural transformation in Japan:


See also

*
List of Rinzai Buddhists {{short description, None Founder *Linji Yixuan A *Ankokuji Ekei * Sōgen Asahina *Ashikaga Yoshimitsu B *Bassui Tokushō * George Bowman C *Sherry Chayat * Chō Tsuratatsu * Chūgan Engetsu *Leonard Cohen D * Watazumi Doso *Ji Gong * Ogino D ...


Notes


References

* Carpenter, Bruce E., "Kokan Shiren and the Transformation of Familiar Things," ''Tezukayama University Review'' (''Tezukayama daigaku ronshū'' (Nara, Japan), No. 18, 1978, pp. 1–16. * Kitamura, Sawakichi. (1941)
''Gozan bungaku shiko''
(''A Draft History of Five Mountains Literature''). Tokyo: Fujiyama Press. * Yamane Yuzo. (1983). "Five Mountains of Kyoto" (''Kyo no Gozan''), in the ''Complete Arts of Japanese Ancient Temples.'' Tokyo: Shueisha Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shiren, Kokan 1278 births 1347 deaths Rinzai Buddhists Japanese Zen Buddhists Kamakura period Buddhist clergy 14th-century Japanese historians People from Kyoto Prefecture Writers from Kyoto Prefecture People from Kyoto Writers from Kyoto