This book investigates the intellectual, social, and religious background of Chinese Zen master Yinyuan’s move to Japan in 1654 and the founding of Manpukuji in 1661. Fully immersed in the Late Ming Buddhist revival, Yinyuan followed a syncretic Buddhist practice but claimed to inherit the authentic transmission from the Linji sect. He arrived in Japan during the Ming-Qing transition and was quickly installed by the bakufu as symbol for representing China in a Japan-centered world order. His presence in Edo Japan engendered various responses from Japanese Buddhists and intellectuals who sought ... More

This book investigates the intellectual, social, and religious background of Chinese Zen master Yinyuan’s move to Japan in 1654 and the founding of Manpukuji in 1661. Fully immersed in the Late Ming Buddhist revival, Yinyuan followed a syncretic Buddhist practice but claimed to inherit the authentic transmission from the Linji sect. He arrived in Japan during the Ming-Qing transition and was quickly installed by the bakufu as symbol for representing China in a Japan-centered world order. His presence in Edo Japan engendered various responses from Japanese Buddhists and intellectuals who sought the meaning of authenticity from Yinyuan. However, the image of his authenticity was questioned and the symbolic presence of Chinese monks was disrupted during the early eighteenth century when China and Japan tightened their control over the Nagasaki trade. Situating Yinyuan and the religious events related to him in a broad understanding of the “seventeenth-century crisis” in early Modern East Asia, this book explains the success and fall of Yinyuan and his tradition in terms of the Authenticity Crisis, meaning that Yinyuan’s claim of religious, political, and cultural authenticity was facing challenges at the wake of a rising Japan-centered identity in Edo Japan. Through the case of Yinyuan, this study seeks to interpret the intellectual and cultural transformation in early modern East Asia as manifestations of the Authenticity Crisis. This book provides new perspectives for rethinking the symbolic role of Buddhist monks in the process of intellectual, political, and social transformation.