Janine Tasca Anderson Sawada

"Zenkai ichiran" (A Ripple in the Sea of Zen) is an apologetical work written by Zen master Imakita Kosen (1816-1892) in which the author draws on classical Chinese texts and their commentaries to argue for a distinctively Zen Buddhist interpretation of thirty well-known Confucian passages. The treatise sheds valuable light on efforts to confront the anti-Buddhist rhetoric that was endemic in intellectual and political discourse in nineteenth-century Japan, and later played an influential role as a teaching text in Rinzai Zen education throughout the twentieth century. It became the basis for several lecture series and commentaries by well-known modern Zen masters in Imakita's lineage, notably Shaku Sōen (1859-1919). With the support of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, the Chinese (kanbun) original is being translated into English in preparation for publication as a book project that will include a scholarly introduction in addition to the fully annotated text.