Yuefeng Daozhang

• Chinese/Japanese: 悦峯道章 (Yuèfēng Dàozhāng / Eppou Doushou)

Yuèfēng Dàozhāng, often known as Eppô in Japan, was a Chinese Ôbaku Zen monk who lived for many years in Nagasaki.

He first arrived in Nagasaki in 1657, and was invited to Edo in 1705 for an audience with Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, during which he also met such esteemed figures as Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and Ogyû Sorai. Japanese monks interpreted for him during the meeting with the shogun, in which he was interviewed about Zen and other matters; much of the conversation was also conducted through the writing of notes, in order to help convey what spoken exchanges failed to.

References

• Marius Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, Harvard University Press (1992), 57.