Gina Cogan, "Powerless Girls and Powerful Texts: Dualism and Filial Piety in the work of the Rinzai Zen monk Hakuin (1686-1768)"

Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1768) was famous in his day as a reformer of the Rinzai school of Zen.  He published prolifically for both an elite and a popular audience.  In one of his popular texts, Record of Four Filial Sisters of Takatsuka with Supplement, Hakuin praises four sisters all under the age of thirteen for copying the Lotus Sutra in order to help their parents, who are suffering in hell.  Although they are marginalized in the text, mentioned only in an appendix and not in the main body of the work, these four girls make the text possible not only by ostensibly inspiring to write it, but by serving as its frame.  As such, their lack of power, remedied only by the efficacy of the Lotus Sutra, stands in for the powerlessness of the entire audience, making Hakuin’s advice all the more necessary and promoting his agenda of reform.