The seventeenth-century baku Zen monk Tetsugen Dk, as editor of a massive volume of Buddhist writings, was in a position to evaluate the plethora of works produced up to the beginning of the Edo period. In a postscript to a doctrinal tract that attempted to accommodate Buddhist doctrine to the level of popular understanding, one of his disciples remarked about Tetsugen: “Since the Zen sect was introduced into this country, there have been few other men who have in this fashion presented the essence of it in the Japanese language. The Collection of Sand and Pebbles by Zen Master Muju and the Dialogue in a Dream [Muchu mond] by the Master Mus are about the only good books there are; although there are many others, few of them are worth mentioning.” Although Muju saw himself basically as a purveyor of religious anecdotes illustrating various doctrinal themes, he has...