BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 253seek political influence. Dagen's thought was virtually forgotten, even in his
own school, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Only in the past
century have scholars resuscitated his writings and made them available to the
Japanese intellectual mainstream.
Soon after Dogen returned from China, he was followed by a number of
Chinese and Japanese masters who brought Rinzai Zen (in Chinese, Lin-chi
Ch' an) to Japan. Most of the Chinese masters were refugees from the Mongol
invasions of China or-in following generations-members of Lin-chi lin-
eages that were out of favor with the new Yiian dynasty. Unlike Dagen, many
of these teachers followed the Sung Ch' an tendency of combining their teach-
ings with neo-Confucian social and political doctrines, and so were willing to
act as scribes and teachers of Chinese culture for their aristocratic supporters.
This helped make Rinzai popular with the ruling classes. Rinzai was quickly
accepted by both the shogunate and the imperial court, which helped the sect
withstand the political pressures exerted by the more established schools. The
only Rinzai school established in the thirteenth century that is still extant
today is the 6-To-Kan school, founded by Nampo Jomyo (1235-1309), who
emphasized classical koan study and resisted the temptation to combine Rin-
zai teachings with those of other Buddhist or Confucian schools. His follower
Shuho Myocho organized the first systematic program of koan study in Japan
and founded the Daitoku-ji temple in Kyoto, which is today the head temple
of the Rinzai sect, justifiably famous for the quiet sophistication of its build-
ings and gardens.
One noteworthy feature of Rinzai Zen during this period was its appeal
to the relatively uneducated warriors of the Kamakura shogunate. It provided
them with an avenue to Chinese culture, bypassing the court-dominated
Tendai and Shingon sects. At the same time, its style-direct, one-on-one,
forcing the student to be quick on his feet-appealed to their warrior spirit.
This lay the seeds for one of the great ironies of Japanese Buddhism, a long-
term development whereby Rinzai was incorporated into the bushido (Way of
the Warrior) in the seventeenth century (see Section 10.7), and later used to
justifY Japan's militaristic policy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (see
Section 10.8).
10.5.2 Pure Land
Belief in the imminence of the Mappo-the age ofDegenerate Dharma-
continued to gain widespread credence into the Kamakura period, leading to
the formation of three major popular sects that have continued up to the pre-·
sent time. The history of these sects is especially interesting in that it provides
us with the earliest detailed records of the way in which Japanese folk reli-
gious groups formed around charismatic leaders, were distorted by their early
following, and suffered at the hands of the authorities.
The first of these sects was the Jodo-shii (Pure Land sect), founded by the
Tendai monk Honen (1133-1212). Strongly influenced by the views of Chi-
nese Pure Land Master Shan-tao (see Section 8.5.3), Honen wrote a long work