Riku Etsugan 陸鉞巖 （1855-1937）, a Zen monk of the Sōto Zen sect, was a student at the Sōtoshū Daigakurin 曹洞宗大学林, the predecessor of Komazawa University, when he argued for the establishment of a school for nuns based on Dōgen’s theory of gender equality. During his stay in Taiwan, he visited India, Southeast Asia, and China. After returning from Taiwan, he served as acting president of the Sōtoshū Daigakurin. After becoming the abbot of Entsūji Temple 円通寺 in Nagoya, he translated the Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵, the Shōbōgenzō zuimonki 正法眼蔵随聞記, the Denkōroku 伝光録, and other important books of the Sōto Zen sect, originally composed in Japanese, into classic Chinese. This was done with the aim of proselytizing not only in Taiwan but also in China and Korea. Many of these works and their manuscripts are stored in the Komazawa University Library, but they have not been known until now.
