The Repurposing of Letters and Personal Writings in Medieval Japanese Buddhism

The Case of Dōgetsu Shōnen and His Disciples

Individual Research Project

Dōgetsu Shōnen 道月聖然 (1248–1325) was a prolific Buddhist scholar-monk of the Sanron and Shingon traditions, active in Japan during the Kamakura period (1185–1333). He was the superintendent of the temples Shingon-in and Shinzen-in, he wrote the Tōdaiji hachiman genki 東⼤寺⼋幡験記 and the Kaidan-in engi 戒壇院緣起 in 20 scrolls, and he broadened his doctrinal interests to include the Kusha and Vinaya traditions. However, his most significant contribution lies in his crucial role in the revival of Sanron studies (Kinadeter 2025, 2026), following the efforts of his teacher Chūdō Shōshu 中道聖守 (1215?–1291). Shōnen lectured on Sanron at various occasions, and although he did not codify his exegesis himself, the exegesis from several of his lectures was written down by his disciples, mostly by Kakuzenbō Jinne 覚禅房尋慧 (1286–1355?). In addition, there are many handwritten notes extant from Shōnen, which were used in a particular practice of re-purposing manuscripts, and it is these personal notes that constitute the core of this project.

The corpus of the research project is formed by letters and other private notes written by Shōnen in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) that were subsequently re-purposed by his disciples. The individual sheets of his notes were collected, cut, and bound together as horizontal scrolls. On the backside of these newly bound scrolls, we can still see the primary layer with Shōnen’s original notes, whereas the new front side was used to write new texts (the secondary layer). The majority of scrolls were created and written already during Shōnen’s lifetime to codify Sanron sub-commentaries based on his lectures, whereas one other example constitutes a posthumous printing of the Lotus Sutra. This copy differs insofar from the other scrolls as the new content is printed, not handwritten, and because it clearly constitutes a specific religious practice: according to its colophon, the merit of copying the scripture is dedicated to Shōnen. While this written artefact has been the object of previous research (Dolce 2022, O’Neal 2025), the other composite manuscripts have neither been identified nor studied previously. As case studies of the practice known as letter-sutra 消息経 (Jap. shōsokukyō), these manuscripts offer a unique opportunity to explore questions such as material choices, scribal practices, and the re-use and re-purposing of existing manuscripts, while allowing us to form a better understanding of the transmission and circulation of manuscripts in the monastic community of medieval Japanese Buddhist temples.