Abstract

This book chapter is concerned with the questions of authorship in texts related to Dōgen Kigen, a Japanese monk who lived between 1200 and 1253, at the dawn of the Japanese Medieval period. Dōgen was involved to widely varying degrees, in the production of those works catalogued under his name, and figures as different authorial types from the truthful disciple recording his master's words in Hōkyōki to the converse role of authoritative master, whose words are truthfully recorded by his own adepts in Eihei kōroku. His first doctrinal exposition, Bendōwa, exhibits a peculiar model of authorship in acknowledging original compisition (by Dōgen) while fusing this author-figure with the Buddhas and Patriarchs of old.