National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Kohō Kakumyō (1271–1361) was a priest of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist sect active in the late Kamakura to Nanboku-chō period. Originally ordained on Mt. Hiei as a monk of the Tendai sect, he later became a disciple of Zen priest Muhon Kakushin (1207–98) and converted to Zen Buddhism. After receiving his certificate of dharma transmission, which recognizes his mastery of Zen principles and names him a successor of his master’s teachings, twenty-one-year-old Kohō joined other Zen priests including Kōhō Kennichi (1241–1316) and Nanpo Jōmin (1235–1308) on a visit to Yuan China in 1311 to further his studies in Zen (Ch. Chan). There, he studied under Zhongfeng Mingben, and also traveled across the country to learn from Gulin Qingmao, Duanya Liaoyi, Yunwai Yunxiu, and Wujian Xiandu, among other great Chan masters. After returning to Japan, he founded the Unjuji Temple in Izumo Province (present-day Shimane), and later also imparted the teachings of Zen to Emperor Godaigo on Mt. Senjō in Hōki Province (present-day Tottori), a task that earned him the honorary title of Kokusai Kokushi. He would then go on to receive another honorary title, Sankō Kokushi, from Emperor Gomurakami, before passing away at the ripe old age of ninety-one, amid the politically turbulent times of the Nanboku-chō period.

It bears mentioning that Kohō’s aforementioned Zen master, Muhon Kakushin, had himself been a convert from the Shingon sect, and had, after joining the Zen sect, gone to China during the Song dynasty where he learned from and became the successor of Wumen Huikai (1183–1260). Muhon is most well-known in Japan for having brought back the Wumen guan, a log of Zen teachings edited by his master.

This work counts itself as one of the few extant works of calligraphy by Kohō, and is one of the two most famous examples; the other is a similar inscription of Zen teachings which he gave to his disciple, Koken Chitotsu, that has since been passed down in Unjuji. Kohō wrote this work to encourage the recipient, Hoju Daishi, to keep pursuing his training in Zen. Unfortunately, we have no other information about the identity of Hoju Daishi. Both this work as well as the one in Unjuji were signed, “By Monk Kohō Kakumyō, who had studied in Song China,” suggesting that the mastery over Zen that Kohō had attained as a youth in China had made a lasting impression on him, guiding him for the rest of his life. Although it is unclear when exactly he had penned this particular work, the bold brushstrokes spanning these twenty-four lines of writing suggest that he had done so in his later years.