Kakusan-ni

Lady Horiuchi was born in 1252 to the powerful Adachi clan. Her father was Yoshikage, the commander of Akita Castle; She was the last of Yoshikage's eleven children, according to Lineages of the Higher and Lesser Aristocracy. After her father died in 1253, she was raised by her older brother Adachi Yasumori, who succeeded Yoshikage as head of the clan and as her custodian. Lady Horiuchi and Tokimune, her cousin and future husband, were likely well acquainted from a very young age; Tokimune himself was born at the Adachi residence in Kamakura. == Marriage and child ==

In 1261, Lady Horiuchi married Hōjō Tokimune when she was nine, and he was ten years old. In 1274 and in 1281, Tokimune successfully repelled the Mongol invasions of Japan, but at considerable cost to the Kamakura shogunate, both financially and politically. == Religious life ==

Both Lady Horiuchi and Hōjō Tokimune studied the practice of Zen Buddhism, including meditation, under Mugaku Sogen (1226–1286), who emigrated from Song dynasty China and became the founding abbott of Engaku-ji. were assassinated in what came to be called the Shimotsuki ("Eleventh Month") incident. Kakusan was the founding abbess, while Sadatoki was the lay patron. One historical text suggests that Kakusan-ni had asked her son Sadatoki to enact a temple law at Tōkei-ji to help women seeking separation from their husbands, and that he in turn asked the emperor, who approved the request. Other historians have pointed to the short story, Karaito-zōshi, which depicts Tōkei-ji as a sanctuary, as evidence that it had already developed a reputation as a safe haven for women as early as the Muromachi period. Recent historians including Sachiko Kaneko Morrell and Robert E. Morell have suggested that Kakusan-ni's interest in providing sanctuary to others was likely influenced by the fact that so many members of her own family were killed or forced into exile following the Shimotsuki incident. Thus, another theory is that Tōkei-ji initially had its roots in providing asylum more generally, and that its function as a divorce temple was a later development. Transcription of the Garland Sutra Following Tokimune's death, Kakusan-ni took on the task of copying the entire text of the Garland Sutra in his memory, taking an entire year to transcribe 80 volumes. The scrolls she transcribed were formally presented at the third memorial anniversary of his death, and later stored at Engaku-ji, in a stupa commissioned by Sadatoki. Kamakura Zen kōan In 1545, the Rinzai monk Muin Hōjō published a compilation of Kamakura Zen kōan, called Word Weeds in Southern Sagami Province. The volume includes several anecdotes about Kakuzan Shidō. Seal of succession According to the kōan, in 1304, Shidō was conferred the inka or "seal of succession" as a Zen Buddhist master, by Tōkei, the fourth abbott of Engaku-ji. A master of novices who opposed her confirmation challenged her by asking, "In our lineage, anyone receiving transmission must expound on the Discourses of Lin-chi (Rinzai-roku). Do you know this work?" Acknowledging that teachers of Zen were typically literary scholars who were lecturers, Shidō placed her knife before her and replied, "As a woman from a military family, however, I place my dagger before me. What need have I for books?" Tōkei-ji Mirror Zen Another kōan describes Kakusan-ni's practice of meditation before a mirror, which might enable her to "see into her own nature" and attain enlightenment. Word Weeds attributes the following lines of poetry to Kakusan-ni: The practice of zazen while sitting in front of the mirror thus became a tradition among nuns at Tōkeiji, who would meditate on the question: "Where is a single feeling, a single thought, in the mirror image at which I gaze?" == Death and legacy ==

Kakusan-ni is believed to be buried at Butsunichian, the Hōjō family memorial at Engakuji, along with Tokimune. The divorce law was abolished in 1871 due to anti-Buddhist sentiment, and the temple ceased to be a nunnery in 1902. == Portrayal in popular culture ==

In 2001, NHK broadcast a year-long historical TV drama series titled Hōjō Tokimune. In the series, Kakusan-ni is called , although her actual given name is unknown. She was portrayed by Hikaru Nishida, with other actors playing her as a child and as an older woman. == See also ==