This paper studies the religious teachings developed in the Sōtō sect from the early to mid-Edo period (17th to 18th century) through the Shōbōgenzō-zokugenkōgi, the main work of Itsudō Kanchū (1684?–1760).
The book is regarded as a criticism of the Shōbōgenzō-benchū, Tenkei Denson’s (1648–1735) major work in his last years (published 1729).
The book has been used for research in the Meiji era when books were revised by Nishiari Bokuzan and Gonda Raifu.
However, I examined the manuscripts held in Aichi Gakuin University and Kōryūji Temple in Nagano Prefecture, and it turned out that the book edited by Nishiari has many problems. Also, the two manuscripts were closer to the form of the original. In the future, we should conduct research using these two manuscripts.
