Rinzō

輪蔵 The Wheel Repository

1 Source and/or Related Material

Unknown

2 Author

Kanze Nagatoshi

3 Repertoire

Kanze

4 Synopsis

A travelling monk (waki) from Dazaifu in Kyūshū is visiting the capital with his disciples (wakitsure), when they visit the Kitano Tenmangū, a shrine to the vengeful spirit of the wronged bureaucrat and scholar Sugawara no Michizane, who is closely associated with their own homeland. They are admiring a revolving bookcase in the center of the sutra repository when Katen, the guardian deity of the bookcase, appears in the shape of an old man (maetsure). The old man promises the monk that he will be able to understand all five thousand of the sutras stored in the bookcase in just one night, then disappears. At midnight, Chinese layman Fu from ancient China, inventor of the revolving bookcase (shite), accompanied by his two magical boy attendants Pujian (kokata) and Pucheng (kokata), appear from within the bookstand. The boys present the monk with a box containing sutras, which the monk recites while layman Fu performs a dance. Katen (nochitsure) comes back and starts to spin the bookcase around and around. Meanwhile the monk, layman Fu, and the whole company process around the perimeter of the bookcase. Katen and his other supernatural companions then inform the monks that they have now learned all the sutras inside the bookcase, and Buddhism will flourish.