Background
Chūgan Engetsu was born in Kamakura of a family that claimed descent from Emperor Kammu (r. 781-806).
Chūgan Engetsu was born in Kamakura of a family that claimed descent from Emperor Kammu (r. 781-806).
At age eight Chūgan Engetsu entered the prestigious monetary of the Zen Rinzai sect in Kamakura as an acolyte. At twelve he was a disciple of Dokei.
In 1318, hoping to be able to go to China, he journeyed as far as Kyushu, but the Kamakura shogunate refused him permission to leave the country.
In 1333 the Kamakura shogunate was abolished, and Emperor Godaigo assumed the direction of the government. These changes occasioned considerable unrest among the people. Engetsu thereupon submitted a memorial to the throne pointing out the abuses and ill effects attendant upon the reforms that were being carried out in the political system.
In 1339 he was asked to establish the Kisshoji monastery. From this point until his death in 1375 he was residing as head of many of the Zen establishments in Japan. His writings reflect both a Confucian concern with social values and a Zen love of the ironic and iconoclastic.