This exploration of the activities and ideas of Rinzai abbot Imakita Kosen (1816-1892) and his lay disciple Torio Tokuan (1847-1905) highlights the sociopolitical dimensions of an important religious network that developed in the Kanto area in early Meiji, and indicates that ordained and lay Zen Buddhists collaborated closely in the ideological movements of the 1880s. It is suggested that the conventional category “conservative,” though generally applicable to these Buddhists, is not always adequate to the nuances of political culture during this period, and that “Zen” as a distinctive idea was not prominent in the nationalistic discourse of the time.