The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 3: Medieval Japan

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ZEN MONASTICISM 599

monasteries be given official recognition and warrior protection, thus

relieving them of some of the hostility of the Enryakuji and other

powerful and long-established rivals. The warrior regents would have

been receptive to arguments that it would add to their prestige and

that of Japan to create a nationwide network of official Zen monaster-

ies similar to the system established in Sung China. But the Hojo

could also have seen other benefits deriving from the elaboration of an

official Zen monastic system. They were thus asserting their predomi-

nant influence over, and co-opting to their service, a new and increas-

ingly influential branch of Japanese Buddhism.

For centuries, the imperial court had created client relationships

with certain Buddhist monasteries, by granting them the status of

jogakuji or monzeki. Other monasteries in Kyoto and Nara were linked

to the imperial family or the Fujiwara and other noble houses through

the family connections of their abbots. Such ties of monastic status

and personal connection kept the older monasteries firmly within the

sphere of court influence and resistant to warrior control.

By creating an official network of Zen monasteries, the Hojo were,

therefore, building their own countersystem of client monasteries, in

which warrior interests would be heeded and the sons of warrior fami-

lies who entered the monastic life could rise to positions of leadership.

The Hojo were also painfully aware that many of the older monasteries

maintained powerful armed bands that were sources of political vio-

lence and monastic unruliness and corruption. By asserting their con-

trol over the metropolitan Zen monasteries, the Hojo were thus trying

to ensure that the new Zen institution would not become yet another

militant branch of monastic Buddhism. Warriors from the bakufu

with the title of superintendent of Zen monasteries (jike gyoji) were

given authority over the gozan network, and the bakufu began to issue

detailed regulations for the various gozan monasteries, including

strong prohibitions against the acquisition of weapons by Zen monks.

Although the Hojo took the lead in elevating to official status the

new Rinzai monasteries they sponsored, members of the imperial fam-

ily were quick to follow suit. The Kyoto monastery of Nanzenji was

established in 1291 when the cloistered emperor Kameyama converted

one of his detached palaces into a Zen monastery. At the urging of the

court, it was quickly accorded gozan status. Emperor Godaigo (1288-

1339) demonstrated that, like the Hojo, he too could discern political

advantage in the patronage and control of the growing gozan Zen

institution. When he came to power after the destruction of the

Kamakura bakufu in 1333, he deliberately shifted the leadership of

the gozan monasteries from Kamakura to Kyoto, by promoting to the

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

6O0 ZEN AND THE GOZAN

highest rank within the gozan group those monasteries like the

Nanzenji or the newly established Daitokuji that had strong imperial

connections. Godaigo had relied heavily on the support of the older

Buddhist monasteries like the Enryakuji in his efforts to topple the

Hojo.

His promotion of a Kyoto-centered

gozan

was thus an indication

that he fully recognized the social influence of metropolitan Zen and

was eager to use that influence to help restore imperial rule.

Godaigo's imperial restoration was short-lived. Ashikaga Takauji, a

warrior leader who had helped him overthrow the Kamakura bakufu,

ousted him from the capital in 1336, installed a rival emperor on the

throne, and set himself

as shogun. The Ashikaga family came from

the Kan to where they had already been patrons of Rinzai Zen monks.

Takauji, his brother Tadayoshi, and the Ashikaga shoguns carried on

from the Hojo the practice of promoting metropolitan Zen monaster-

ies to the various ranks of the

gozan

system. With their bakufu based

in Kyoto, it was natural that the Ashikaga should have particularly

favored newly established Kyoto monasteries like the Tenryuji or

Shokokuji, with which they had close ties and which were dominated

by monks from Zen lineages that they patronized such as that of Muso

Soseki. The Kamakura gozan survived, but for the next century or

more it was the Kyoto

gozan

monasteries, their subtemples and provin-

cial satellites patronized by the Ashikaga and their leading vassals and

headed by monks of the Muso and Shoichi lineages that dominated the

gozan

network and the whole Zen establishment.

As an institution, the

gozan

network grew rapidly under the patron-

age of the Ashikaga shoguns and their provincial agents, the

shugo.

Among the shugo families that became generous patrons of gozan

monks and monasteries during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

were the Akamatsu, Asakura, Hosokawa, Imagawa, Kikuchi, Kira,

Ogasawara, Otomo, Ouchi, Sasaki, Satake, Takeda, Toki, Uesugi,

and Yamana. Both Akamatsu Norimura (1277-1350) and his son

Norisuke (1314-71), for instance, studied Zen under Sesson Yubai

(1290-1348). For Sesson and his followers, they established several

Rinzai monasteries in Harima, among them the Hounji and Horinji,

both of which were designated

jissatsu

by the Muromachi bakufu.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki (1329-92), who served as a senior bakufu official

(kanrei)

and as

shugo

in Shikoku and Bingo, was an enthusiastic patron

of monks of the Muso lineage and a vigorous sponsor and reformer of

gozan

monasteries.

Imagawa Ryoshun, who served the Ashikaga as

20 Kosaka Konomu, Akamatsu Enshin, Mitsusuke (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1970). pp.

60-71.

21 Ogawa Makoto, Hosokawa

Yoriyuki

(Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1972), pp. 243-73.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF ZEN MONASTICISM 601

governor of Kyushu (Kyushu tandai) and as shugo of Totomi and

Suruga, was a patron of Bukkai and other monks of Enni's lineage

from the Tofukuji.

The Ouchi made their provincial headquarters,

Yamaguchi in Suo, into a major cultural center during the Muromachi

period and invited to it some of the most famous Zen masters of the

age.

Of the Rinzai temples that they sponsored, the bakufu ranked the

Jofukuji, Koshakuji, and Kokuseiji as jissatsu and the Eikoji as a

shozan.

The Otomo established half a dozen Rinzai temples in Bungo

during this period. Most of them were headed by monks of Enni's

line,

the Shoichi branch of the gozan, and had close ties with Tofukuji.

Among these monasteries, one was ranked as

jissatsu,

the remainder

as shozan. Of eleven jissatsu and shozan monasteries in Mino, at least

five were established by the Toki family, the shugo of the province.

The expansion of the jissatsu and shozan tiers of the gozan network

clearly owed a great deal to patronage of the gozan lineages of Rinzai

Zen by warriors of

shugo

rank. It seems fair to ask, therefore, why the

majority of

shugo

should have become such eager sponsors of gozan

monks and the gozan institution.

Certainly they were attracted by the new Chinese Zen teachings and

by the novel practice of meditation (zazen). The writings of the Zen

masters of that time reveal that

shugo

and other provincial warriors not

only discussed Zen with them but also sat in meditation and came to

them to discuss koan - that is, they sought enlightenment. Many

shugo placed their younger sons or daughters in Zen monasteries and

nunneries and some, like Otomo Ujiyasu, rose to high positions in the

gozan.

In addition, as in the case of the Hojo regents and Ashikaga sho-

guns,

cultural, political, and social factors, as well as spiritual inter-

ests,

were involved in shugo patronage. Many

shugo

spent at least part

of their time at the shogun's court in Kyoto, where they associated

both with other warriors and with nobles and Zen prelates from the

gozan monasteries. The patronage of gozan monks and the establish-

ment of Zen monasteries in their domains kept these provincial war-

riors in direct touch with the cultural style of Kyoto and, beyond that,

with the cultural interests of the Chinese literati.

It is clear from the surviving documents that the Zen monks whom

warriors were most eager to patronize and invite to their territories

were monks who had recently returned from China or who enjoyed a

reputation in Kyoto for spiritual insight or cultural accomplishment.

22 Kawazoe Shoji, Imagawa Ryoshun (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1964), pp. 49-52.

23 Ouchi patronage of Zen and the arts is detailed in Yonehara Masayoshi, Sengoku bushi to

bungei no kenkyu

(Tokyo: Ofusha, 1976), pp. 511-814.

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6(32 ZEN AND THE GOZAN

Imagawa Ryoshun, the Akamatsu, Ogasawara, Otomo, and many

other

shugo

studied Neo-Confucianism and Chinese poetic styles under

Zen monks. Ogasawara Sadamune (1291-1347) is believed to have

developed his code of warrior etiquette (Ogasawara-ryu) partly under

the guidance of Ch'ing-cho Cheng-ch'eng (Seisetsu Shocho, 1274-

339)5 from whom he learned the rules of Zen monastic etiquette and

the cultural ideals of Chinese literati.

The Ouchi family, learning from the printing activities of

the

Kyoto

gozan, sponsored the printing of Buddhist texts, Confucian classics,

and treatises on Chinese poetry at Zen temples in Suo. Like other

wealthy provincial warrior families, they were collectors of Chinese

paintings and other art objects

(karamono),

in regard

whose apprecia-

tion they sought the guidance of Zen monks. Indeed, it was with the

backing of the Ouchi, and on an Ouchi vessel, that the painter Sesshu

Toyo (1420-1506), who had begun his painting career as a monk in

the Kyoto

gozan

monastery of Shokokuji, was able to make his way to

China for further study.

By the mid-fourteenth century it was obvious to the

shugo

and other

provincial warrior families that Rinzai Zen was politically very much

in the ascendant and that the Ashikaga and members of the imperial

family were showing particular favor to those lineages of Rinzai Zen

that were represented in the newly designated gozan,

jissatsu,

and

shozan

monasteries. As vassals of

the

Ashikaga, the

shugo

were encour-

aged to establish Zen monasteries in their provinces, and they found it

politically expedient to have those monasteries ranked as

jissatsu

shozan.

In doing so they were not only winning favor with the

bakufu; they were also opening up channels of communication with

the capital and doors for the advancement of those of their offspring

who chose to enter the Zen monastic life. Socially, by installing presti-

gious Zen monks from the gozan schools as heads of their family

temples (ujidera), the

shugo

hoped to raise their own local prestige

among the warrior famines in their province and perhaps contribute to

a greater sense of cohesion among their family members and vassals.

Certainly, the proliferation of

jissatsu

and shozan monasteries was

achieved in many cases not by. building new foundations but by con-

verting former Tendai, Shingon, and Pure Land family temples into

Zen monasteries in response to the rapidly growing religious and social

interest in Zen.

24 On the provincial diffusion of the gozan, see Imaeda Aishin, Chusei Zenshu-shi no kenkyu

(Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku shuppankai 1970), pp. 137-268.

25 Kawai Masaharu, Chusei buke shakai no kenkyu (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1973), p. 120.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ZEN MONASTICISM 603

The shugo's patronage was also instrumental in carrying Rinzai Zen

into the provinces. Their example prompted other local warrior fami-

lies (gozoku or kokujin) to establish Zen monasteries, some of which

were ranked among the

jissatsu

and shozan.

By the mid-fifteenth century, the gozan network included some

three hundred monasteries, many of which had their own subtemples

(tatchu) and branch temples (matsuji). Eleven monasteries were ranked

as full gozan. After the reorganization of the gozan ordered by

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1386, the five Kamakura gozan monasteries,

in descending order of seniority, were the Kenchoji, Engakuji,

Jufukuji, Jochiji, and Jomyoji. The Kyoto gozan included the

Tenryuji, Shokokuji, Kenninji, Tofukuji, and Manjuji. Nanzenji was

set in a special position "above" the gozan.

In 1386 Yoshimitsu had also named ten monasteries from Kyoto and

ten from Kamakura

jissatsu. By the mid-fifteenth century, however,

the principle that this category should include only ten monasteries or

ten ranks was being neglected. The Ashikaga shoguns awarded jissatsu

ranking to important provincial monasteries until more than forty

were included in this tier. There had never been any restriction on the

number of shozan, or "various mountains," and so the Ashikaga were

able to show favor to provincial warrior families and monks of the

gozan schools by according shozan status to their monasteries. By the

mid-fifteenth century more than 250 shozan had been designated

throughout Japan. In most provinces there was at least one monastery

of jissatsu and five or six shozan. These carried gozan Zen practices and

the cultural values of Kyoto into the most remote parts of the country.

Gozan Zen was also carried into the provinces through the system of

ankokuji, or "temples for peace in the realm." At the urging of Muso

Soseki, Ashikaga Takauji and his brother Tadayoshi, starting in 1345,

gave the title of ankokuji to one important Zen monastery in each

province, provided it with a Buddha relic, and required its monks to

offer prayers for the memory of Godaigo and those warriors who had

fallen in the fighting between the Northern and Southern Courts. At

the same time, for the same purpose, they gave the title

rishoto,

"pagoda

of the Buddha's favor," to a Tendai, Ritsu, or Shingon monastery in

each province. In doing this, Muso and the Ashikaga may have taken a

hint from the Nara-period kokubunji system of provincial monasteries,

but they were also motivated by contemporary concerns. Muso was

eager to close the breach between the supporters of the rival courts and

put at ease the restless spirit of Godaigo. By establishing the ankokuji,

the Ashikaga were publicly expressing their repentance for their treat-

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

604 ZEN AND THE GOZAN

ment of Godaigo and the Southern Court and were playing for popular

sympathy by a nationwide offering of prayers for those who had died in

the civil war. They were also honoring Muso, promoting

gozan

Zen,

and tightening their links with the provincial warrior families whose

family temples were designated as

ankokuji.

Many of the

ankokuji

were

later included in the

gozan

network

as jissatsu-rank

monasteries. The

appointment of non-Zen monasteries as

rishoto

gave the bakufu one

means of surveillance over these influential provincial monasteries.

Limitations of space preclude a detailed discussion of the

ankokuji

system or of the frequent promotions and demotions of temples within

the

gozan

system. It does seem important, however, before considering

the institutional development of the other branches of Rinzai and Soto

Zen, to mention some of the features characterizing the operation of

the

gozan

as a bureaucratic institution.

Under the Hojo and the early Ashikaga, the

gozan

monasteries were

supervised by warrior officials of the bakufu who held the title otjike

gydji

Zenritsugata

(commissioners for Zen and Ritsu monasteries).

In 1379, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu gave supervisory control over the

gozan

to the Zen monks when he appointed Shun'oku Myoha, a leading

disciple of Muso Soseki, to the office of

soroku

(registrar general of

monks). Yoshimitsu may well have borrowed this idea from a similar

office supervising the Ch'an monasteries in Ming China. He was also

demonstrating that he believed that the

gozan

was a mature institution

capable of regulating

itself.

Beginning in 1383, the

soroku

office was

headed by the chief monk of the Rokuon'in subtemple within the

Shokokuji. The original intention seems to have been that the

soroku

would be responsible for all Zen monasteries, but in practice, his

authority was limited to the

gozan

network, especially the Kyoto

go-

zan.

The duties of the

soroku

included the nomination to the bakufu of

monks qualified for appointment as abbots and senior monks of gozan

monasteries, the collection of fees for such appointments, and the

enforcement of Zen monastic regulations and bakufu prohibitions.

The

soroku's

authority was limited because the monastic assemblies in

each monastery maintained considerable autonomy and the bakufu

continued to deal directly with individual gozan monasteries and to

interfere in the policymaking of the

gozan.

When Kamakura gozan

monasteries were unable to settle their disputes, the bakufu urged

them to look for redress not to the

soroku

but to the Kan to kubo.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the

soroku

office was

26 Imaeda,

Chusei Zenshu-shi

kenkyu,

pp. 77-138.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ZEN MONASTICISM 605

held by a number of influential monks, most of whom belonged to the

Muso lineage, including Zekkai Chushin (1336-1405), one of the most

accomplished gozan monk poets; Zuikei Shuho (1391-1473), poet and

compiler of the collection of diplomatic documents known as the Zen-

rin kokuhoki; the bakufu representative who settled a dispute between

the Kamakura kubo Ashikaga Mochiuji and the Kanto kanrei Uesugi

Norisada; and Keijo Shurin (1440-1518), a confidant of Ashikaga

Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun. During much of the sixteenth century,

the office of

soroku

was eclipsed by that of the Inryoken. The Inryoken

was a hermitage built by the sixth shogun, Yoshinori, within the

Rokuon'in. As shogunal appointees, the heads of the Inryoken came to

exert considerable religious and political influence and to extend their

authority over the gozan. In 1615, both the

soroku

and Inryoken office

were abolished by the Tokugawa bakufu as part of

its

policy of regular-

izing Buddhism. The last holder of the

soroku

office was the influential

monk Ishin Suden (1569-1633) of the Nanzenji, who had served as an

adviser to Tokugawa Ieyasu and played a major role in drafting policy

toward Buddhist temples, in handling foreign relations, and in compil-

ing codes regulating the nobility and the samurai.

The gozan monasteries comprised an officially sponsored system.

Following Sung Chinese practice, the ideal was that these official

monasteries be "open monasteries" (Jipposatsu), their abbots nomi-

nated by the soroku, from among the most qualified monks available,

and confirmed by the bakufu, irrespective of their Zen lineage. In

practice, in the gozan rank, the Nanzenji and Kenninji in Kyoto and

the Engakuji and most of the Kamakura gozan took their abbots

from one of the gozan Zen lineages. Some gozan and many jissatsu,

however, were virtually closed temples (tsuchien), headed and filled

by monks of a particular lineage. In Kyoto, for instance, the Tenryuji

and Shokokuji among the gozan and the Rinsenji and Tojiji of the

jissatsu category were enclaves of the Muso school. The Tofukuji and

its many provincial offshoots were generally headed by monks of the

Shoichi lineage, successors of Enni Ben'en. In Kamakura, the

Kenchoji was dominated by monks who traced their Zen lineage

through Lan-ch'i Tao-lung.

Subtemples {tatchu) proliferated around the great metropolitan Zen

monasteries. These began as private retreats for senior monks who had

27 Ibid, pp. 269-366.

28 Toshihide Akamatsu, and Philip Yampolsky, "Muromachi Zen and the Gozan System," in

John W. Hall and Takeshi Toyoda, eds., Japan in the

Muromachi

Age (Berkeley and Los

Angeles: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 324-5.

606 ZEN AND THE GOZAN

completed their term as abbot and, instead of returning to the monks'

hall, had retired to build a small hermitage (in, ken, or an) in or near

the main compound, where they lived quietly with a few close disci-

ples.

At his death, the Zen master's cremated remains would be kept

in the

tatchu

for veneration, and the hermitage would be treated as a

memorial temple in which his spirit was kept alive. These subtemples,

too,

naturally became the enclaves of particular lineages. They were

not unique to Japan or to the

gozan,

but the lavish patronage enjoyed

by the

gozan

monasteries and ihe relatively short terms of appointment

by their abbots - generally two years - meant the existence of a sub-

stantial pool of well-supported venerable monks eager to establish

their own subtemples. Monasteries like the Nanzenji and Tenryuji in

Kyoto or the Engakuji in Kamakura were, by the sixteenth century,

surrounded by twenty or thirty tatchu. The Hojo regents and the

Ashikaga shoguns tried, but with little success, to restrict the growth

tatchu,

as they were a drain on the resources and manpower of the

main monastery, not always responsive to bakufu regulation or monas-

tic discipline, and prone to feuding among themselves.

Many of the Zen masters who established subtemples also had cul-

tural interests: They were poets, painters, connoisseurs of Chinese art

objects, devotees of tea, designers of gardens, and students of Confu-

cian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought. Their subtemples, therefore,

tended to become close-knit salons in which their cultural interests

were transmitted to their disciples and given free rein, often at the

expense of rigorous Zen practice.

As an officially sponsored monastic system, the gozan institution

was subjected to close regulation by the warrior rulers. The Hojo

regents Sadatoki and Takatoki issued sets of prohibitions for the

Kamakura

gozan

monasteries in 1294, 1303, and 1327. Similar codes

were issued periodically by the Ashikaga shoguns for the various tiers

of the gozan hierarchy and for individual monasteries. It was the

soroku's

responsibility to secure compliance with these regulations by

the gozan monasteries and their subtemples. In these regulations the

shogunate sought to maintain monastic discipline and prohibit luxury

and immorality, to prevent the excessive growth of Zen monastic popu-

lations, and to ensure that the Zen monasteries did not follow the

example of some of the older monastic centers and become armed

camps.

29 Tamamura Takeji, "Gozan sorin no tatchu ni tsuite,"

Rekishi chiri

76, nos. 5 and 6 (1940):

44-58,

33-64-

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ZEN MONASTICISM 607

The basic legal codes of the Muromachi bakufu, the Kemmu

shikimoku, and their supplementary regulations, the tsuikaho, give con-

siderable attention to the regulation of the gozan. A sampling of these

regulations will indicate some of the rulers' concerns in their relations

with the Zen monasteries. Article 72 of the tsuikaho, issued around

1352,

attempted to deal with certain flagrant breaches of monastic

discipline:

Up to now monks have wandered about day and night outside the temple at

will. They have schemed to make money in the temple precincts and such

moneylending activities have multiplied. This has become a subject of ru-

mors,

causing a decline from the Buddha's law, and must be admonished.

The abbot and temple council acting in concert must make an inspection, and

a violator must be expelled from the temple without delay. If he refuses to

leave the temple, he will be considered a criminal and the Kanto government

must be notified.

By the late fourteenth century, as gozan life became formalized, se-

cure,

and culturally oriented, some monks were becoming casual in

the performance of their religious practice of prayer and meditation.

Yoshimitsu and his successors thereupon issued sharp admonitions to

delinquent monks, as in the tsuikaho, Article 141:

Both elders and ordinary monks must be carefully checked for [attendance at]

the three daily services. [If they are absent,] they must be removed from the

temple rolls, and elders must not be promoted. In the Zen sect, advancement

comes with the practice of Zen discipline

(zazen),

and those who have been

repeatedly negligent shall be expelled from the temple.

As a new, growing, and generously patronized institution, the gozan

monastic population swelled rapidly from the late thirteenth century.

The novelty of Zen practice, the fame of Chinese Ch'an masters, the

reputations of Japanese monks like Enni, Muso, and Gido Shushin

(1325-88), the splendor of the new gozan monasteries, their close ties

with the warrior elite and the imperial court, and their cultural style all

helped draw monks away from other branches of Buddhism and con-

vince provincial warriors that their younger sons could find advance-

ment in the gozan cloisters. The Hojo and the Ashikaga had no desire

to see the gozan Zen monasteries rival in size the older monastic institu-

tions like the Enryakuji, Koyasan, or Negoro with their thousands of

monks, monastery servants, and armed bands. Such huge complexes

were unruly, badly disciplined, and hungry for land and donations to

30 Kenneth A. Grossberg and Kanamoto Nobuhisa, trans., The Laws of the Muromachi Bakufu

(Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1981), p. 55. 31 Ibid., p. 79.

608 ZEN AND THE GOZAN

support their populations. The Kamakura and Muromachi bakufus,

therefore, tried to contain the growth of gozan monastic populations.

They ruled that major gozan like the Engakuji in Kamakura or the

Nanzenji in Kyoto should have no more than between three hundred

and five hundred monks, one hundred or fewer jissatsu, and no more

than around fifty shozan. That their efforts to control the growth of

gozan monastic population were unavailing is clear from the many

references to this problem in the tsuikaho and other codes pertaining to

Zen monasteries. Article 138 of the tsuikaho, for instance, reflects the

situation around 1380:

In the Joji law it was set at 500 men for large monasteries. However, we hear

that [monasteries of] from seven and eight hundred to one and two thousand

[monks] exist, and all must know that this will cause the destruction of

Hyakujo's standards. The abbots must strictly obey the [Joji] law and reduce

the number of monks. There should be thirty novices in regular residence,

fifty as visitors from other temples, and all others must be removed from

temple rolls.

The large numbers of novices, boys of fifteen or under, in the gozan

monasteries created several problems. First, although they contrib-

uted little to the monastic economy, they had to be fed. Those of them

who came from wealthy warrior families vied with one another in

flaunting the luxury of their robes and personal effects. And many of

them became the objects of sexual attention and rivalry by older

monks.

One recurrent problem confronting the bakufu and the soroku in

their efforts to regulate the swelling gozan monastic institution was

that of maintaining capable and dedicated leadership and administra-

tion for gozan monasteries of all levels. Many of the bakufu's regula-

tions were directed at correcting abuses by abbots and by monks in

the eastern and western ranks of the monastic bureaucracies. The

authorities were forced repeatedly to warn about powerful families

seeking monastic office for their proteges and to criticize monks

appointed to office for neglecting their duties in one office while

seeking appointment to a higher post in the monastic hierarchy. One

bakufu regulation of 1352, for instance, provides early evidence of

these problems:

In recent years men of no ability have been indiscriminately appointed to

office, either because it was requested by die Bakufu or because of ties to a

powerful person. Furthermore, it is widely heard that in the course of

year

32 Ibid., p. 78.

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