Chugan's achievement was his mastery of this difficult medium, a signal of the ripening of Five Mountains poetry and prose in Japan.
At age eight he entered the prestigious monetary of the Zen Rinzai sect in Kamakura as an acolyte.
At this time Chugan began in earnest his Chinese studies, devoting himself to the Classic of Filial Piety and Analects.
In 1320 he realized his hopes for a journey to China that resulted in a seven-year study-tour of Zen masters and institutions.
His writings reflect both a Confucian concern with social values and a Zen love of the ironic and iconoclastic.