through a “Renaissance” period when the wealthy clerical elite secularized
from within, turning most of its attention to artistic production. There came
a further phase of religious decline under state regulation, building up to
full-fledged outbreaks of anti-clericalism. And both places experienced counter-
waves of religious neoconservatism within the secularizing tide. Structurally,
Tokugawa Japan and the most secularizing and capitalist-dominated parts of
Europe underwent a rapid expansion of the educational and printing markets,
with the resulting proliferation of mass popular culture. This too left its mark
on the tone of intellectual production; “Enlightenment”-style “philosophes”
and popular authors appeared virtually contemporarily in both places.
We should remind ourselves again that intellectual creativity is no mere
reflex of economics and politics. There are three layers of causality: (1) eco-
nomic-political structures, which in turn shape (2) the organizations which
support intellectual life; and these in turn allow the buildup of (3) networks
among participants in centers of attention on intellectual controversies, which
constitute the idea-substance of intellectual life. Economic-political conditions
determine ideas not directly but by way of shaping, and above all by changing,
the intermediate level, the organizational base of intellectual production.
We see this pattern by a very general overview of the networks of Japanese
intellectuals in the five figures in this chapter. In those figures are all the
philosophers and religious-intellectual leaders who commanded much attention
across the generations.^1 The networks show four periods of creativity, each of
which coincides with one of the major shifts in the political and economic
structure of Japan.
Around 800 (and apparently within a year of each other), the first two
major Japanese Buddhists, Saicho and Kukai, found the schools of Tendai and
Shingon, which would dominate for 400 years thereafter. This happens at just
the time of the founding of the capital city at Kyoto, beginning the Heian
period of ceremonial court rule (794–1185).
In the generation 1165–1200 there begins a network of notable Buddhists,
which extends densely down to 1335–1365, followed by isolated figures of
secondary eminence in the next two generations. Here we see a burst of tightly
connected creative figures, with the usual splits and simultaneous rival lineages,
continuing for six generations, with a decline in network continuity and
creative eminence for two generations thereafter. This marks the foundation
of the Zen lineages, and includes virtually all of their famous members (leaving
aside a last flourish of Zen in the Tokugawa); typically in each generation there
is at least one memorable Rinzai master, plus an equally distinguished rival
(usually in Soto). In addition, in the early generations, where the most impor-
tant Zen masters appear, the main versions of Japanese Pure Land popular
Buddhism are created in another tight network. The beginning of this period
324 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths