The Purple Robe Incident and the Formation of the Early Modern Soto Zen Institution

Abstract

The transition from the medieval to the early modern Buddhist order was directed in large measure by a new regulatory regime instituted by the Tokugawa bakufu. These new directives issued from Edo increasingly regulated every aspect of both political and religious life during the first half of the seventeenth century. As the bakufu extended its control over domains through a pyramidal hierarchy of order towards the center, similar formations of regulation governing Buddhist sectarian order emerged in an increasingly formalized fashion. At the same time, power did not operate in a unilateral direction as Buddhist institutions attempted to shape regulation, move toward a self-regulatory model of governance, and otherwise evade control by the center through local interpretations and implementations of law. This essay takes up how state regulation of religion was managed by Soto Zen Buddhism, with particular attention given to rules governing the clerical ranks and the robes worn by clerics of high rank. The 1627 "purple robe incident" is examined as an emblematic case of the new power relationship between the new bakufu's concern about subversive elements that could challenge its hold on power; the imperial household's customary authority to award the highest-ranking, imperially-sanctioned "purple robe"; and Buddhist institutions that laid claim on the authority to recognize spiritual advancement. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

The transition from the medieval to the early modern Buddhist order was directed in large measure by a new regulatory regime instituted by the Tokugawa bakufu. These new directives issued from Edo increasingly regulated every aspect of both political and religious life during the first half of the seventeenth century. As the bakufu extended its control over domains through a pyramidal hierarchy of order towards the center, similar formations of regulation governing Buddhist sectarian order emerged in an increasingly formalized fashion. At the same time, power did not operate in a unilateral direction as Buddhist institutions attempted to shape regulation, move toward a self-regulatory model of governance, and otherwise evade control by the center through local interpretations and implementations of law. This essay takes up how state regulation of religion was managed by Soto Zen Buddhism, with particular attention given to rules governing the clerical ranks and the robes worn by clerics of high rank. The 1627 "purple robe incident" is examined as an emblematic case of the new power relationship between the new bakufu's concern about subversive elements that could challenge its hold on power; the imperial household's customary authority to award the highest-ranking, imperially-sanctioned "purple robe"; and Buddhist institutions that laid claim on the authority to recognize spiritual advancement.

KEYWORDS: Soto Zen Buddhism-Tokugawa bakufu and religion-hatto-"purple robe incident"

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)

BUYO INSHI ... was the pen name of an anonymous writer from the late Edo period whose essay, Seji kenmonroku ..., was critical of many aspects of Edo society at the time, including what he considered the degenerate activities of merchants, government officials, and Buddhist clerics. 1 While speculation about his identity has ranged from the possibility that he was a shogunal retainer or a moneylender to his being a judicial clerk, his wish to remain anonymous because of his biting remarks has made it difficult for modern scholars to trace his true identity (Aoki 1999; Tsuji 1955, 172.73). The Seji kenmonroku section on religious institutions includes the following commentary about the Soto Zen sect in which he decries the moral and spiritual degeneration of Zen clerics who were unable to live up to new sect and government regulations on clerical training. He also sharply criticized the practice of bribery to purchase clerical ranks and higher-rank colored robes as well as the general atmosphere in which money dictated clerical success.

[Recently], Buddhist clerics, from all the sects, have been breaking both governmental and sectarian regulations. Neither having the [required] years [of experience] nor moral discipline, they walk the path of greed". To take up an example or two, I will start with the Soto school. According to the rules set by the first Shogun Ieyasu, for a cleric to be considered fully qualified, he must attend clerical training retreats for twenty years. For the same cleric to become an abbot of a temple, twenty-five years are necessary. These rules were determined through discussions between the sect and a high-ranking cleric of a different sect.2

The clerical training includes a ceremony where clerics sit across from each other to hold a question-and-answer session regarding the Dharma. Even though difficult or unexpected questions might be asked, one is supposed to be able to give an appropriate reply. However, these days, the ceremony is conducted with the participants having previously agreed upon the contents of both the questions and the answers. Unlike the true Zen question-and-answer session, the ceremony today is like a preset performance of sword and spear techniques, rather than real combat .... Having gone through the clerical training only in form, they can still become a fully-recognized cleric or a temple abbot without the twenty years of training and without the proper number of Dharma years, if they prepare a bribe of ten ryo .... These clerics take ten ry. to Kyoto (that is, the imperial household which was the official organ for recognizing clerical rank), while they hand over another five ry. to [one of] the head temples (Eiheiji ...). Then they file a false claim stating that twenty years (in Dharma age) have already passed and a letter of reference is awarded. Finally they take this letter to the Kajuji ... (the Kyoto brokerage house for the imperial household), and if another five ry. is "donated," Kajuji's permission is granted with no objection. In this way, clerics acquire the status of a fully recognized cleric in the beginning and eventually they purchase the rank of a "great abbot" (daiosho ...).

The head temple of this Soto school is Eiheiji of Echizen Province. These days, it is said that to become the abbot of this head temple, it is necessary to ready two thousand ryo. Out of this amount, one thousand ryo is spent on the various preparations for entering the temple itself, while the other thousand ryo is spent on gifts and other items when visiting the imperial household in Kyoto .... Always breaking the Buddhist law, clerics these days are sullied. Though they wear the red robe as abbots of large temples, they forget propriety and shame.

Regulating Legal Authority

Buy. Inshi's complaints about the corruption of the Soto Zen clergy refer to "the rules set by the first [Tokugawa] Shogun Ieyasu." These rules were among the first series of legal directives (hatto ... or gohatto ...) issued by Ieyasu ... (1542. 1616) and the newly established Sh.gunal government in the city of Edo. However, the process of establishing a new structure of governance that could exert authority over former rival warlords and their domains, the aristocracy and the imperial household in Kyoto, and religious institutions such as Buddhist temples could only gradually unfold as the new regime gained more control over the provinces.

The bakufu created a new legal framework with these directives to establish a new order in which potential rival sources of power and authority (local lords, the imperial court and aristocrats in Kyoto, and Buddhist institutions) would be awarded a certain level of autonomous decision-making authority, but only under the ultimate control of the regime. The first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, followed the model established by earlier warlords (sengoku daimy. ...) who tried to unify the Japanese provinces under their control, such as Oda Nobunaga ... (1532.1582) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi-... (1536.1598). They had used a double-pronged strategy of, on the one hand, destroying or at least weakening any Buddhist institution that posed a potential threat to their control, and on the other, providing patronage to Buddhist temples to help solidify their hegemony over this powerful institution (McMullin 1985).

The first series of these directives (1602.1615) was issued by Tokugawa Ieyasu to sects that were securely under his control. Noticeably absent were the Jodo Shin and Nichiren sects, which remained potential threats in the bakufu's eyes, and the Ji sect, which was hard to regulate because its head abbots often moved from place to place (yugyo shonin ...). The earliest directives were generally limited to a single temple (Koyasan ..., Daijuji..., Hieizan ..., Jobodai'in ..., Senmyuji ...) or a particular region (the Kanto-region directives for the Tendai sect and the two Shingon sect lineages). Indeed, it was not until 1615 that the bakufu's key advisors on religious affairs, such as Konchiin Soden ... (a Rinzai Zen cleric, 1549-1633) and Tenkai ... (a Tendai cleric, 1536-1643), were able to issue more broad-based rules that covered all sects and regions of Japan (Kato 1977; Tamamuro 1987, 6-25).

These directives primarily clarified the organizational structure of Buddhist institutions and the hierarchy of clerical ranks so that such institutional matters would come under the purview of the bakufu, rather than being left to the discretion of each sect. Although the specific details of the rules differed for each sect, general decrees that applied to each sect were as follows: a supreme head temple for Buddhist training (honzan ... a system of head and branch temple relations (honmatsu seido ...) that enabled each head temple to have authority over its branch temples; a standard for clerical qualifications or regulations (for example, the length of training required to become a fully fledged cleric, robe colors for each rank, and standards of moral discipline); and prohibitions on warrior monks and the buying or selling of temple abbotships. These directives by the government were intended to curb the local Buddhist institutions' decisionmaking powers and to set up a framework for the government to prohibit certain practices and encourage others. In other words, the bakufu wanted to concentrate the power to control Buddhist activities in bakufu-approved head temples.

In the case of Soto Zen, the first Shogun issued three directives: the 1612 Sotoshu hatto and the 1615 Eiheiji shohatto ... and Sojiji shohatto .... The 1612 directive was initially dispatched to four temples (Daitoin ..., Kasuisai ...) that had ties to Tokugawa Ieyasu, several of which were later designated as official Soto Zen liaison temples in charge of communicating with the bakufu. The directive included the following five points:

Directive for the Soto Sect

Item: A cleric who has not completed thirty years of clerical training cannot become a resident temple abbot (...).

Item: A cleric must have completed twenty years of clerical training before serving as a training retreat head (gokogashira ...).

Item: Temples should not allow monks and nuns who were expelled from a different temple for committing transgressions to come into residence.

Item: To receive a colored robe (...),3 a cleric must have spent five years from the time served as a training retreat head without having committed any offenses.

Item: All branch temples must obey the decisions and rules set out by their head temple.

Anyone who does not follow the above rules will be expelled from the temple grounds.

The twenty-eighth of the Fifth Month, Keicho ... (1612).4

Although this "law," which applied to all Soto Zen temples, was quickly superseded by the 1615 Eiheiji shohatto and Sojiji shohatto directives, these rules reflected regulations that had already been issued by local lords in the late sixteenth century,5 and they also served as the basis for the new 1615 directives that were issued to the two supreme head temples of the sect:

Regulations for Eiheiji (and all Branch Temples of Eiheiji)

Item: After one has undergone clerical training for twenty years and served as the training retreat head, if another five years goes by and one wishes to apply for a higher-ranking colored robe, one should bring to the mountain [Eiheiji] a letter of recommendation from one's Dharma transmission master. Our temple will hand the request to the Denso ... [the office for requests to the imperial household] and an imperial order (rinji ...) proclaiming the promotion and permission to wear the higher ranking colored robe will be announced if the application is successful. As a further note, to become a resident temple abbot, one must have had thirty years of clerical training.

Item: For the purposes of counting one's years of training from the time of the promotion, the day on which the request was received (by the imperial household) should be regarded as the starting point.

Item: Only those who have received imperial permission to serve as the abbot of Eiheiji or Sojiji may don a purple robe. Further, the purple robe may not be worn at any other temple than the two temples and should not be worn after one has been transferred to a different temple.

Item: On the founder's [Dogen's] annual memorial day, [the abbots of] all branch temples in Echizen Province must, without exception, come and attend the ceremonies. [The abbots of] temples in more distant regions should also consider attending.

Item: All clerics in the Japanese Soto lineage must follow these rules in accordance with the traditions of this temple (Eiheiji).

Addendum: Finally, these regulations have not been strictly followed recently. There has been talk of clerics wearing purple and yellow robes without authorization. Violations of the Buddhist law like this leads to ridicule from the people and are an insult to the Dharma way. These regulations have been settled on to spread the Buddha Dharma and the sect. Any cleric breaking these rules will be sent into exile.

Seventh Month of Genna ... (1615), [Seal of Ieyasu]

(EIHEIJI HENSAN I'INKAI 1982, 20)

The directive issued to S.jiji, dated the same month in 1615, was virtually identical to the Eiheiji directive, except for the clause on Japanese S.t. Zen clerics having to follow the traditions of Eiheiji, and the replacement of the requirement to visit the head temple on D.gen's annual memorial day with Keizan àðR and Gasan's ... (the two main founders of S.jiji) annual memorial days for branch temple abbots in Kaga, Noto, and Etch. Provinces (Eiheiji Hensan I'inkai 1982, 83).

These rules addressed the three main problems for the bakufu and the head temples in regulating the sect: the clarification of the authority structure of the sect, the standardization of the clergy's hierarchy, and the implementation of procedures to obtain imperial permission for clerical promotions. While the medieval period was characterized by a fairly flexible (and at times tumultuous) relationship between the established temples and the fast growing, more recently erected temples, the Tokugawa bakufu hoped to establish a stable system that gave the head temples absolute legal authority over the branch temples. Indeed, one can see in these directives attempts by both Eiheiji and S.jiji to consolidate control over their branch temples by requiring attendance at their temple for their respective founder's memorial services. Yet, just as the head temple was supposed to have absolute jurisdiction over the branch temple's affairs, the bakufu wanted to assert its authority over the S.t. Zen head temples. For example, the bakufu had the final authority to expel clerics from the clergy, although the temples themselves were the ones that had to monitor adherence to the regulations. The rules also standardized the clerical hierarchy, which, in the medieval period, tended to be determined according to factional (monpa ...) traditions or regional customs. The basic career of a cleric can be laid out as follows:

The first twenty years of clerical training: The cleric was to diligently pursue Buddhist training, which would officially begin at the time he received the tonsure. This training involved participating in a number of summer and winter retreats, so that after twenty years, it would be possible to be the head retreat leader (gokogashira).

The twenty-fifth year: The earliest possible time that the cleric could petition to be granted a higher rank in the clergy, which involved a change in the color of the clerical robe (ten'e). This request would only be considered if the cleric had done nothing improper for five years following a term as a head retreat leader. The thirtieth year: The earliest possible time the cleric could obtain permission to become a resident abbot (hodo) of a Soto Zen temple. The cleric would, in some sense, "own" the rights of abbotship to that temple and have the right to take on disciples, so such a privilege came only thirty years after receiving the tonsure.

This government-regulated standard career path of a Soto Zen cleric from novice to temple abbot meant that even if a cleric was ordained at age thirteen (which was the earliest one could receive the tonsure) and everything went smoothly, the youngest age that a cleric could become a temple abbot was fortythree. Indeed, Buyo Inshi's criticism of under-qualified abbots (under the age of forty-three) was based on this official regulation. While this effort to standardize the career steps of Soto Zen clerics crossed factional and regional boundaries, loopholes and other ways to evade the actual steps required for clerical advancement, such as bribery, became routine. This is not particularly surprising given that there were over seventeen thousand Soto Zen temples that needed clerics to serve them; if every cleric actually followed the regulations before serving as abbot, it would have been impossible to maintain the sect's temples. However, these first directives issued by the bakufu did represent an initial attempt by the new regime, with the help of cooperative head temples, to institute a new early modern form of Soto Zen Buddhism based on the bakufu's authority structures.

Though at first glance these regulations might seem like a one-sided set of government-mandated rules, they were, in fact, carefully negotiated by leading clerics of the S.t. Zen sect and the bakufu's chief advisor on religious affairs, Konchiin Suden .... Not only were various clerics in contact with Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sunpu and Edo Castles, but they also drew up proposals for the directives (Eiheiji Hensan I'inkai 1982, 550). For example, two months prior to the 1612 Sotoshu hatto, Konchiin S.den recorded in his diary (Honk. kokushi nikki ...) one such proposal from the abbots of the Dait.in, Soneiji, and Ryuonji temples with exactly the same wording as appeared in the 1612 Sotoshu hatto. In this sense, these early attempts by the government to assert control over Buddhist institutions was accompanied by efforts within each sect to influence legislation and curry favor with the new regime. Soto Zen clerics skillfully allied themselves with both the central and local-level authorities as one strategy to maintain the growth of the sect. Unlike other sects that also had popular appeal, such as the Jodo Shin and Nichiren schools, which found themselves at times in antagonistic positions with either the central or local authorities, Soto Zen Buddhists were able to create an institution that simultaneously supported the new regime (and thus found patronage among the daimyo and lower-level members of the samurai class) andappealed to the peasant farmers who constituted the vast majority of their membership.

However, the ideal political and religious order that the bakufu envisioned was implemented only gradually, and in many respects, it never quite fully came into being due to local political realities. Nevertheless, one indicator of the bakufu's growing powers over religious institutions in the early 1600s was its new regulations on the procurement of colored robes at the time of clerical promotion.

Clerical Ranks and the Purple Robe Incident

In Kan'ei ... 4 (1627), the bakufu stripped the imperially awarded ranks, titles, and purple robes of over seventy Rinzai Zen, fifty J.do, and thirty-four Soto Zen clerics. This was the beginning of the so-called "purple robe incident" (shie chokkyo jiken ...).6 During the medieval period, the bestowal of imperial titles and the permission to wear the purple robe (a color associated with the imperial household) was a matter between the imperial household and the abbots of major temples. During the Muromachi period (1392.1573), the two types of imperially bestowed titles (chokushigo ...), "National Master" (kokushi ...) and "Zen Master" (zenji ...), were awarded primarily to abbots of the large "five mountains" (gozan ...) temples of the Rinzai Zen sect, located in Kyoto and Kamakura. Although the Muromachi bakufu could nominate candidates to receive such titles and thus the privilege of wearing a purple robe, the ultimate authority to confer these ranks was vested in the imperial household. The significance of the 1627 "purple robe incident" was that the new Tokugawa bakufu in Edo overrode the authority of the imperial household in Kyoto by stripping over one hundred and fifty clerics of their robes and titles. This dramatic act marked a shift in the balance of religious authority power from the Kyoto court to the Edo bakufu, and ultimately prompted the abdication of Emperor Gomizuno ... (r. 1611-1629).

The bakufu made this decision because the earlier directives they had issued to limit the ability of the imperial household to award robes and titles at will were being ignored. In 1613, Tokugawa Ieyasu had issued the "Regulations on the Imperially-Awarded Purple Robe" (Chokkyo shie hatto ...), which targeted seven Rinzai Zen temples to obtain the Edo bakufu's permission before approaching the imperial household for purple robes and titles. Not only did Ieyasu hope to influence the choice of abbots at those major temples (a practice that he and other daimy. had previously performed in their own domains), but more importantly, he wanted to reduce the authority and wealth of the imperial household and the Kyoto aristocratic households (dens.) who had traditionally served as intermediaries between imperial power and Buddhist institutions. By proclaiming the Edo bakufu to be the initial checkpoint, the number of purple robes, and consequently the money that was paid for them, could be controlled.

Two years after the initial directive, the bakufu laid down further regulations. The 1615 Kinch. narabi kuge gohatto ... was issued primarily to regulate the conduct of the aristocratic families. The text included a section lamenting the number of recently awarded purple robes and declaring that such robes be awarded to only those with truly exceptional abilities. The 1615 Rinzai Zen directive, Gozan jissatsu shozan shohatt. ..., also prohibited the practice of awarding purple robes to those who served as abbots only in name (or in an honorary fashion) except under extraordinary circumstances. Further, the directive required that color distinctions should be made according to the rank of the temple: deep purple for abbots of Nanzenji ..., light purple for abbots of Tenryoji ..., and yellow for abbots of the other Kyoto and Kamakura "five mountains" temples.

But the temples, the Kyoto aristocratic houses, and the imperial household ignored these regulations and continued to award purple robes without bakufu permission. The rescinding of the award of these robes and titles in 1627 affected Soto Zen and Jodo sect clerics as well, but the Rinzai Zen clerics from Daitokuji ... (Takuan ... and Gyokushitsu ...) and Myushinji ... (Togen ... and Tanden ...) were the ones who reacted most forcefully to the bakufu decision. They argued that this particular decision was not only wrong, but that the basic directive regulating the Rinzai Zen sect was poorly conceived. For example, the requirement of thirty years of clerical training and the completion of a 1,700 Zen k.an study program to become a resident abbot overlooked the fact that enlightenment might come at a young age and by understanding a single k.an. The bakufu reply to this type of argumentation was swift and unsympathetic. Konchiin S.den was particularly furious, especially with Gyokushitsu, with whom he had consulted in the preparations of the Rinzai Zen regulations, and wanted to administer severe punishment to all involved. With the other bakufu councilors (...) and Tenkai (the other main bakufu advisor on religious affairs) seeking a more lenient solution, this incident finally came to its conclusion in 1629 when T.gen was exiled to Tsugaru, Tanden and Takuan to Dewa, and Gyokushitsu to Mutsu (all areas in the remote northern provinces). Emperor Gomizuno-o, embarrassed at the loss of imperial prestige, abdicated the throne and passed on the position to his daughter, Empress Meish. ... (r. 1630-1643) (Tsuji 1955, 81-102).

With this incident, the bakufu firmly established its official position as the prime mediator in the conferring of all imperial titles, though, as Buyo Inshi suggested in his essay, the unofficial practice of falsifying documents maintained the illegal circulation of titles and robes in plentiful numbers.7 The reason that purple, red, and yellow robes continued to hold immense appeal to Soto Zen clerics was that they served as proof of a high standard of training, and thus other clerics were required to ask colored-robed clerics to lead certain rituals that were prohibited to those with only black robes. Furthermore, colored robes not only helped Soto Zen clerics gather temple parishioners by impressing upon the parishioners their elevated status, but the fees that were charged for funeral and memorial rites increased in accordance with a higher-ranked robe. Thus, at the local level, the demand for colored robes, which began in the late medieval period, continued unabated during the Edo period despite new governmental regulations.

In practice, however, the ability of the bakufu to control the awarding of colored robes within the Soto Zen sect was limited to the exalted purple robe. The 1615 directive (Eiheiji shohatto and S.jiji shohatto) issued by the bakufu decried the unauthorized circulation of these robes and made a point of limiting ownership to those who had "received imperial permission to serve as the abbot of Eiheiji or Sojiji." Furthermore, the missive stated that robes "should not be worn after one has been transferred to a different temple." The rule against wearing the robe if and when a cleric moved to a different temple was based on a practice that began in the late medieval period (and dramatically increased in the Edo period) wherein a cleric could serve as temporary and honorary abbot of the supreme head temple (zuise ...). In other words, while there would be an abbot who actually presided on a daily basis, other "abbots" could come temporarily to fill in (at times for only a single night, ichiya joshoku ..., and at times, not actually in person at all). Such temporary abbots thereby received an imperially sanctioned title as an "ex-abbot of Eiheiji (or Sojiji)." Many abbots continued to wear the purple robe when they returned to their temples, prompting the ban on such practices.8

With the purple robe, at least, the bakufu seemed to have succeeded in implementing its authority over the robe's bestowal. According to a newly discovered and catalogued cache of manuscripts, the Doshoan monjo ...,9 the process for obtaining the purple robe and imperial appointment for new abbots to Eiheiji included a visit to Edo Castle for shogunal approval before an abbot could seek approval from Kyoto for imperial authorization.10 A typical itinerary for a candidate for the abbot of Eiheiji, for example, consisted of:

1) An initial trip to Edo Castle to receive the bakufu's letter of recommendation for the abbotship upon handing in a letter from the current abbot declaring an intention to step down. At this time, nearly two hundred clerics, lay supporters, and servants accompanied the candidate. It took two months to ready all the documents and visit bakufu officials for pre-meeting consultations.

2) A fifteen- to twenty-day journey to reach Eiheiji (Echizen Province) using the T.kaid., Nakasend., and Hokurid. routes. Funds for the remaining part of the trip would be collected at this point.

3) Another fifteen- to twenty-day journey to reach Kyoto from Eiheiji, traveling with over fifty attendants.

4) Once in Kyoto, lodgings were by custom at Doshoan ... (a special broker for the Soto Zen school). Before visiting the imperial palace, meetings were held at an aristocrat's house, which served as the imperial intermediary (...). These meetings and the distribution of payments took time; roughly one-and-a half months passed before imperial permission was finally bestowed.

5) The newly appointed abbot would take an ox-drawn carriage back to Eiheiji, drawing large crowds of onlookers.11

While the bakufu was able to establish a new process for the administration of the process of awarding the purple robe, the increasingly commercial culture of the Edo period allowed for leading S.t. Zen clerics to bypass the aspects of the new regulatory regime. For example, although Buy. Inshi could have exaggerated his claims that to secure the abbotship of Eiheiji, "it is necessary to ready 2,000 ry.," in fact, according to Tamamuro Fumio's analysis of the accounting books, the figure was even higher. In the case of Daiko Myogaku ... (the sixtieth abbot of Eiheiji, appointed in 1848), just to meet the Shogun in Edo to receive the official appointment letter required over 78 ry., which, if converted to rice bushels at the market price that year, were equivalent to roughly 49 koku ... (rice yield measurement), more than the amount Eiheiji could produce annually in its own rice fields (which varied from 30.35 koku of rice per year).12 In fact, the total amount of money spent by Daik. My.gaku and his retinue on travel, lodging, bribes, and servants, among other expenses for the entire trip from Edo to Eiheiji, to Kyoto and back to Eiheiji, was 2,200 ry.. The financial records of Tenrin K.ch. ... (the fifty-fifth Eiheiji abbot, appointed in 1822) also totals over 2,270 ry. (Tamamuro 1999, 92). Both figures exceeded Buy. Inshi's estimate and Eiheiji's yearly income from its rice fields. It therefore appears that aspiring abbots, however spiritually inclined, must have also been skillful fund-raisers.

The bakufu had less control over the more ordinary clerics who were installed as "temporary abbots" at either Eiheiji or Sojiji temples before returning to their rural temples as fully-fledged abbots.13 The vast majority of Edo-period Soto Zen clerics were able to upgrade their robe color (ten'e) without having complied with the bakufu regulations regarding years of training. This was accomplished, as Buyo Inshi claimed, by preparing a "bribe" (as he put it), or a "processing fee" (as the recipients of the money likely viewed it), of 10 ryo for the imperial household, 5 ryo for the supreme head temple, and 5 ryo for the Kajuji (the Kyoto brokerage house to the imperial household) for a total of 20 ryo. Recently though, Tamamuro Fumio has calculated the actual figure at closer to 40 ryo.14 Whatever the monetary figure, the basic system for recognizing and promoting regular Soto Zen clerics had become standardized by the early 1700s.

A 1801 letter of clarification from the Soto Zen sect to the Edo bakufu's Office of Temple and Shrines explained the procedure:

A Memorandum on the Promotion and Ranks of Soto Clerics

[The candidate for the change in robe color] must have twenty-five years of clerical training [lit. h.r., Dharma age]. They must go to either Eiheiji or Sojiji to serve as a formal abbot of the head temple with a letter of recommendation from their Dharma transmission master, their head temple, or their regional liaison temple (...). After this, they must go to Kyoto, and using Kajoji as their broker, receive permission [from the imperial household]. Only after this can they become chief abbot of a temple. Regarding the Dharma rank of the promoted, this is determined according to the date on which the permission form has been submitted. Those who receive approval should make public, in front of a gathering at the temple, their intentions to serve as temple abbot.... As for the robe, aside from the purple robe, any colored robe is permitted to be worn.15

This official Soto Zen position reinforced the government regulation that required twenty-five years of clerical training. Recent research by Japanese scholars has demonstrated that although this length of clerical training was seldom adhered to, clerics almost universally adhered to the following basic steps for obtaining the license to serve as a regular Soto Zen temple abbot by the late seventeenth century:

Ordinary Clerical Candidate for Temple Abbotship is Recommended Locally

(whether or not twenty-five years of clerical training is actually completed)

Eiheiji or Sojiji Temporary Abbotship

(actual stay at temple required, even if only for one night)

Kyoto Doshoan

(the Soto Zen sect's special lodgings and broker to the imperial household)

Kyoto Kajuji

(aristocrat's house that served as the broker to put in the request for imperial sanction)

Kyoto Buke Denso (Hirohashi or Kajuji, that gave final approval before submission of the request)

Kyoto Palace (Gosho)

(the imperial household gave permission to change robe color and serve as abbot)

Return to Local Temple

(the cleric makes an announcement of abbotship approval at a public meeting of his parishioners)

Although Eiheiji and S.jiji had relations with the imperial household through other aristocratic families prior to the mid-1600s, with D.sh.an's intervention, the Kaj.ji became the sole clearinghouse for all matters requiring imperial sanction throughout the rest of the Edo period. With the exception of the Tendai, Hoss., and Kogi Shingon schools, which traditionally drew clerics from the imperial family and court nobles to their monzeki ... temples, all other Buddhist sects seeking imperial sanction required the mediation of either the intermediary for bakufu affairs (buke dens. ..., most often, the Kajoji) and/ or one of the many aristocratic houses that served as brokers.16 By requiring Soto Zen clerics to go through both D.sh.an and the Kajoji in Kyoto, the head temples, the Kyoto imperial and aristocratic houses, and the bakufu all hoped to control the clergy. The various intermediaries gave Eiheiji and Sojiji temples, for example, a level of standardization of clerical training (which varied greatly according to region) that could be demanded of regular clerics. The authority of the head temples was also made clear through this procedure, especially when a visit and monetary donations were required. For the Kyoto imperial household, such intermediaries served as buffers to an institution they hoped would be viewed as a religio-political source of sanction, and also helped raise desperately needed funds.

As for the bakufu, since the procedure for ordinary clerics also required a final check with a bakufu-affiliated institution (buke denso), it was able to insert itself into the approval process regarding Soto Zen clerical training and advancement. 17 In this fashion, especially after the 1627 Purple Robe Incident, the Tokugawa government was, to a cetain degree, able to fundamentally reshape the administration of Buddhist institutions.

Conclusion

During the first half of the Edo period, the bakufu transformed the medieval structures and practices of the Soto Zen sect with new political imperatives that provided an early modern pyramidal structure of authority that gave a legal framework within which Soto Zen could function as a unified sect transcending regional and lineage boundaries, encompassing the whole of Japan. From Tokugawa Ieyasu's early directives to ongoing negotiations regarding the awarding of purple robes, Soto Zen was an organization largely shaped by the state. Regulations on everything from the number of years required for clerical training to temple hierarchy were part of an attempt by the new regime to rule by directives. This was intended in part to clarify temple authority over parishioners, as well as head temple authority over branch temples, and, most importantly, bakufu authority over all institutions. Indeed, especially after the purple-robe incident, the bakufu tried to insert itself into the decision-making process of Buddhist institutions to a degree not seen in earlier periods.

At the same time, Buyo Inshi's Seji kenmonroku critique of Soto Zen did not exaggerate the blatant flouting of bakufu regulations. As evidenced by the various acts he criticized-buying clerical ranks and titles or the amount of money spent by Eiheiji and Sojiji abbots to pay off brokers-such regulations were never completely implemented. Indeed, the involvement of Soto Zen clerics in writing the draft of the Sotoshu hatto reveals that the formation and implementation of religious policy by the emergent early modern Buddhist order under the new regulatory regime instituted by the Tokugawa bakufu was never one-sided. So while the role and ability of the Tokugawa state in shaping religion is more than evident, close examination of particular sects, localities, and practices such as the awarding of high-ranking robes suggests a dynamic process of interventions by multiple parties in forming the early modern Buddhist order.

Footnote

1. The 1816 Seji kenmonroku by Buyo Inshi was compiled into seven volumes (volume three is on temples and shrines). Two versions of the original manuscript, held at Kyoto University, were put into printed form as Buyo 1994.

2. This would be Konchiin Suden (1549-1633), the Rinzai Zen cleric who served as the key advisor to Ieyasu on bakufu regulations for Buddhist schools.

3. A regular cleric could only have worn a black robe.

4. This can be found in Kasuisai shiry.sh. hensan i'inkai 1989, 70 and Futaba 1990, 36.

5. Although there must have been earlier precedents, the first example of a feudal lord issuing directives for S.t. Zen temples in his domain that can be comprehensively documented is Takeda Shingen's ... 1569 directive for temples in Kai, Shinano, and K.zuke Provinces. For discussion of the creation of these early directives, see Hirose 1993, 248-55.

6. For more on the "purple robe incident," see KATO 1977; MURAI 1999; TAMAMURO 1994. I am indebted to these scholars for much of the discussion that follows.

7. Broad-ranging studies of the history, ritual, symbolism, and types of Zen and other sect's robes (koromo) and surplices (kesa) in China and Japan include: Faure 1995; Kawaguchi 1984; KYUMA 1967).

8. Hirose Ry.k. has compiled a list of such zuise abbots, see Eiheijishi Hensan I'inkai 1982, 609.13. Through this extensive list, Hirose has pointed out a marked growth in the practice of temporary abbotship from the medieval period into the Edo period, until the Genna ... era (1615-23), when a drop is seen (which he attributes to the impact of the 1615 directive). Though abbots could formerly receive these titles without having to actually visit the head temples, the Edo period increase in the practice was tempered by this requirement. For further discussion on this topic, see Eiheijishi Hensan I'inkai 1982, 613. Tamamuro Fumio has estimated that an average of 476 Edo-period clerics annually visited either Eiheiji or Sojiji for this ritual procedure and estimates that the head temples gained an extra 2,618 ryo as annual income from this practice. See Tamamuro 1999, 138.

9. The Doshoan monjo is a collection of manuscripts donated by the Doshoan to Eiheiji during the Meiji period. Until recently, this valuable resource was housed uncatalogued at Chokokuji, the Eiheiji branch temple in Tokyo. Now housed at the Sanshokai Collection of Eiheiji , the manuscripts were first catalogued by Tamamuro Fumio and further classified by Hirose Ryoko. Though these manuscripts have not yet been made available to researchers, I have had the privilege of examining and copying selected portions of the collection with permission from Kumagai Chuko, Tamamuro Fumio, and Hirose Ryoko.

10. The purple robe was not actually bestowed by the emperor. Instead, an authorization certificate was received which allowed the abbots to order the robe from a designated robe maker. See Tamamuro 1995, 29.

11. Financial accounting records of Eiheiji abbots reveal that this lengthy trip to the five main points of authority-Edo Castle (the bakufu), Eiheiji (the supreme head temple), Doshoan, Kajuji (a broker to the imperial household that also served the Higashi Honganji (Jodo Shin), Rinzai Gozan (Zen), and Ji schools), and the Kyoto Palace (the imperial household)-required substantial amounts of money. See Tamamuro 1999, 90-135.

12. These include the financial accounting of the sixtieth Eiheiji abbot, Daiko Myokaku, in Doshoan monjo 2184806099.

13. The initial regulation of the practice of requiring temporary abbotship was issued prior to the Edo period-in 1590 (for Sojiji) and 1592 (for Eiheiji)-which permitted elderly clerics unable to endure the lengthy traveling to receive imperial sanction from the supreme head temple, without having to go to Kyoto. However, under the Tokugawa regime, a tightening of the rules (from 1620) required the head temples to take responsibility for ensuring that all clerics made the journey to Kyoto to receive proper authorization. This requirement of visiting both the head temple and the imperial household in Kyoto can be confirmed at least until Meiji 4 (1871). For full documentation of the development of temporary abbotship, see Eiheijishi Hensan I'inkai 1982, 586-632.

14. While Buy. Inshi (1816) estimated a cost of 20 ry. for the awarding of the abbotship permission, Hirose Ry.k., has argued that a little over 18 ry. was raised and spent by the new temple abbot in 1639, most of which went to Eiheiji , D.sh.an, Kaj.ji, and the robe maker. See Eiheijishi Hensan I'inkai 1982, 628.32. However, analyzing more cases, Tamamuro Fumio has convincingly argued that over the course of the Edo period, an average temple abbot spent 35.36 ry. in Kyoto and 5 ry. at the supreme head temple, thus a total of roughly 40 ry. (Tamamuro 1999, 85).

15. Sotoshu shusse kaikyo kakiage ... (1801) by the Kansansetsu ....

16. In these sects, their respective head temples could certain high ranks without imperial household involvement. With their affiliation to the Tendai and Shingon schools, the Honzan and Tozan branches of the Shugen sect also were able to bypass aristocratic household intermediaries. Though the Jodo Shin Honganji was officially ranked as jun-monzeki, one rank below a monzeki temple, they still required intermediaries. For further discussion of these issues, see Hayashi 1994; Takano 1989.

17. Up until 1714, there were cases of clerics attempting to bypass this step, but firm control over the process was established after this date, see Takano 1989, 155.

References

REFERENCES

Aoki Michio ...

1999 Seji kenmonroku no sekai ... Rekishi to chiri 183: 33-37.

Buyo Inshi ...

1994 Seji kenmonroku .... Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

EIHEIJISHI HENSAN I'INKAI ...

1982 Eiheijishi .... Eiheijich.: Daihonzan Eiheiji.

FAURE, Bernard

1995 Quand l'habit fait le moine: The Symbolism of the Kosoya in Soto Zen. Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 8: 335.69.

FUTABA Kenko ...

1990 Shiryo Nihon bukkyoshi chokan .... Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo.

HAYASHI Makoto ...

1994 Kinsei no sokai ni kansuru ichi kosatsu: S. to zoku no shiten kara .... Nihon bukky. gakkai nenp. 59: 265-82.

HIROSE Ryoko ...

1993 Sotoshu kyodan soshiki no kakuritsu to bakufu no shokyo tosei .... In Dogen shiso no ayumi 3: Edo jidai ...3 ..., ed. Sotoshu Shogaku Kenkyojo .... Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 248-55.

KASUISAI SHIRYOSHU HENSAN I'INKAI ...

1989 Kasuisai shiryoshu Jishi shiry. .... Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan.

KATO SHOSHUN ...

1977 Hakuho Eryo to shie jiken .... Zen bunka kenkyojo kiyo 9: 391-435.

KAWAGUCHI KOFU ...

1984 Sotoshu no kesa no chishiki .... Tokyo: Sotoshu Shumucho.

KYUMA Eccho ...

1967 Kesa no kenky. .... Tokyo: Daih.rinkaku.

MCMULLIN, Neil

1985 Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

MURAI Sanae ...

1999 Shie jikengo no chobaku kankei .... In Zen to sono rekishi ..., ed. Ishikawa Rikizan ..., 343.61. Tokyo: Perikansha.

TAKANO Toshihiko ...

1989 Kinsei Nihon no kokka kenryoku to shukyo ... Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai.

TAMAMURO Fumio ...

1987 Nihon bukkyoshi: Kinsei ... Tokyo: Yoshikawa K.bunkan.

1994 Edo jidai ni okeru chokkyo shie, ten'e no tenkai ... . Sotoshu jinken y.go suishin honbu kiyo 1: 133.67. 1995 Doshoan monjo ni tsuite (3) ...(3). Sansho ... 624: 26-39.

1999 Edo jidai no Sotoshu no tenkai .... Tokyo: S.t.sh. Shomucho.

TSUJI Zennosuke ...

1955 Nihon bukkyoshi: Kinseihen 4 .... Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.