. zen and esoteric buddhism 925
version as “pure Zen” (junsui zen ; see Takeuchi 1976, 121,
144, 181). Such distinctions, however, usually reflect modern analyti-
cal categories more than historical evidence. When similar vocabulary
appears in the historical record, it is rarely purely descriptive but almost
always serves polemical or sectarian agendas. Keizan Jōkin
(1264–1325), for example, is in current scholarship widely credited
with introducing esoteric Zen into the Japanese Sōtō Zen lineage. Kei-
zan’s Sōjiji , today the most powerful Zen temple in the Sōtō
order, began as a Shingon chapel for esoteric rituals (Bodiford 1993,
97). At the same time, Keizan criticized the rival Rinzai Zen lineage
of Eisai on the grounds that Eisai’s Zen was not pure but combined
the three doctrines of exoteric, esoteric, and [buddha-]mind (jun’itsu
narazu, ken-mitsu-shin no sanshū o oku
).^2 In short, Keizan’s actions seem accepting of esoteric Zen,
while his words agree with the views of the modern Zen apologist
D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966), who stated that Zen stands apart from the
esoteric Buddhist elements it harbors.^3
Rather than describing the relationship between Zen and esoteric
Buddhism (a description that necessarily renders religious judgments
outside the realm of objective scholarship), this essay surveys a few
historical examples to illustrate the many ways that Zen and esoteric
Buddhism have and continue to overlap in Japan. This survey begins
with esoteric aspects of the Zen tradition inherited from China and
the roles they play in Japan. Next it examines the influence of Japanese
esoteric Buddhist traditions within Zen, and concludes with a brief
overview of secret initiations in Zen.
Esoteric Aspects of Zen
Dhāraṇī play a prominent role in the daily services of Zen temples
across East Asia, including China, Korea, and especially Japan.^4 The
(^2) Keizan’s assertion appears in his biography of Dōgen (1200–1253) in the
Denkōroku. For a transcription of the manuscript version of this text, see
Azuma 1970, 110. The idea that Buddhism consists of the three categories of exoteric,
esoteric, and mind seems to have originated with Zanning (919–1001) in his
Song gaoseng zhuan (fascicle 3; T. 2061.50:719c).
(^3) Suzuki discusses what he calls “the Shingon elements of Chinese Zen” in his Man-
ual of Zen Buddhism (1960, 21) and “the Chinese Shingon element” in The Training
of the Zen Buddhist Monk 4 (1965, 80).
Regarding Korea, especially note Buswell 1992, 229–42, “Principal Chants Used in
Korean Monasteries.” More than forty percent of these chants (fourteen out of a total