There exists a facsimile of the Shōbōzan Rokusoden 正法山六祖伝, written in 1589 at the Reiun-in 霊雲院 subtemple of Myōshinji. Here I introduce a revised edition of it and that published in 1640. The note added to the copy consists of short life histories of the first abbot of Myōshinji, Kanzan 関山, to the sixth, Sekkō 雪江. The appendix relates the origin of Myōshinji （妙心禅寺記）. The author of the first to the fifth chapters, along with the appendix, was Sekkō. The chapter on Sekkō was written by his disciple Tōyō 東陽. In contrast of the concrete histories of the second to the sixth abbots, Kanzan’s life history is fictitious, without his death data. Sekkō confessed the lack of material about Kanzan in his comment. We offered the testament of Kanzan earlier in this Journal （IBK 62（2）, 2014; 68（1）, 2020）.
Here we offer a revised text of the appendix, that is, the beginning history of Myōshinji, including the latter half of the biography of the first abbot, Kanzan. Sekkō was forced to depend on rumors only for the first half of his treatment of Kanzan, as he confessed. But the latter half of the first chapter is an important source.
The story of the regional name ‘Hanazono’ （Flower Garden） is interesting. In the early years of the capital at Heiankyō, the rice field for the emperor was set in the north-west corner of the capital city. Later his house and garden became the palace of prince Arihito 有仁（1103-1147）. He adorned this garden with flowers. So people called this palace ‘Hanazono’ 花園 meaning the flower garden. The emperor Hanazono （1297-1348） obtained this palace and changed it into a Zen temple. His teacher Daitō Kokushi 大燈国師 named the temple ‘Shōbōzan Myōshinji.’ The emperor installed his master’s first disciple, Kanzan, as the first abbot.
This manuscript of the Shōbōzan Rokusoden is preserved in the library of Ryūkoku University. We owe thanks to the library for their permission to use it for this study.
