Five Mountain System

There used to be in Kamakura a parallel "Five Mountain System" of nunneries called Amagozan (尼五山), of which the famous Tōkei-ji is the only survivor.

[3] At the time of the Song dynasty, Chan (Japanese Zen) was the dominant form of monasticism and had considerable imperial support.

[3][4] It was a system of state-sponsored temples and monasteries built to pray to the gods for the dynasty and the state, which was threatened by enemies from Northern China.

[3] The consequent submission of the Chan network to imperial power and its goals is evident in later codes, particularly in the Baizhang qinggui compiled in 1336.

[4] Introduced to Japan by the Hōjō regency, after an initial hostility from older and established Buddhist sects, it prospered thanks to the support of the country's military rulers in Kamakura first and Kyoto later.

Kyoto's Five Mountains, created later by the Ashikaga shogunate after the collapse of the Kamakura regime, were Tenryū-ji, Shōkoku-ji, Kennin-ji, Tōfuku-ji and Manju-ji.

[6] The Hōjō first, and the Ashikaga later were therefore able to disguise their power under a religious mask, while monks and priests worked for the government as translators, diplomats and advisers.

At the end of the Kamakura period (1333) the four temples of Kennin-ji, Kenchō-ji, Engaku-ji and Jufuku-ji, were already known as the Gozan, but not much is otherwise known about the system, its structure and the hierarchical order.

Go-Daigo added the Kyoto Gozan to the existing temples in Kamakura with Daitoku-ji and Nanzen-ji together at the top as number 1, followed by Kennin-ji and Tōfuku-ji.

[2] The Rishō-tō were direct property of the Gozan, with the exception of those associated with the Ashikaga, which were connected to powerful temples of non-Rinzai schools, mainly of the Shingon, Tendai and Risshū sects.

Even though as a consequence the provinces didn't accept any more the oversight of the Gozan and of the shogunate, the Gozan/Ankoku-ji system remained a valuable instrument to control the various Zen sects.

[2] The temples of this rank were in general powerful institutions of great prestige and had to help the military government financially and in other ways.

[7] The Kyoto Jissetsu were then Tōji-in (等持院), Rinsen-ji (臨川寺), Shinnyō-ji (真如寺), Ankoku-ji (安国寺), Hōdō-ji (宝幢寺), Fumon-ji (普門寺), Kōkaku-ji (広覚寺), Myōkō-ji (妙光寺), Daitoku-ji (大徳寺) and Ryūshō-ji (竜翔寺).

Unlike the Gozan and the Jissetsu, the Shozan were not ordered hierarchically and there were no limits to their number, which consequently grew until more than 230 temples belonged to the system.

[8] Apart from the Gozan temples, there were also many others in the provinces called Rinka (林下, the forest below), among them Sōtō's Eihei-ji founded by Dōgen, and Rinzai's Daitoku-ji, Myōshin-ji and Kōgen-ji, which were not under the direct control of the state.

[10] Unlike the Five Mountain temples, they placed little emphasis on Chinese culture, were run by less well-educated monks who preferred zazen and kōan to poetry.

[2] Rinka Zen prospered among the lower layers of the warrior, merchant and peasant castes, who saw religion as a means to achieve simple worldly goals such as profits and exorcisms.