In 1250 the ex-Emperor Go-sa-ga (1243-1246) sent a special messenger twice to the Ei-hei monastery to do honour to the master with the donation of a purple robe, but he declined to accept it.  And when the mark of distinction was offered for the third time, he accepted it, expressing his feelings by the following verses: 

“Although in Ei-hei’s vale the shallow waters leap,
Yet thrice it came, Imperial favour deep. 
The Ape may smile and laugh the Crane
At aged Monk in purple as insane.”

He was never seen putting on the purple robe, being always clad in black, that was better suited to his secluded life.

4.  The Social State of Japan when Zen was established by Ei-sai and Do-gen.

Now we have to observe the condition of the country when Zen was introduced into Japan by Ei-sai and Do-gen.  Nobilities that had so long governed the island were nobilities no more.  Enervated by their luxuries, effeminated by their ease, made insipient by their debauchery, they were entirely powerless.  All that they possessed in reality was the nominal rank and hereditary birth.  On the contrary, despised as the ignorant, sneered at as the upstart, put in contempt as the vulgar, the Samurai or military class had everything in their hands.  It was the time when Yori-tomo[FN#79] (1148-1199) conquered all over the empire, and established the Samurai Government at Kama-kura.  It was the time when even the emperors were dethroned or exiled at will by the Samurai.  It was the time when even the Buddhist monks[FN#80] frequently took up arms to force their will.  It was the time when Japan’s independence was endangered by Kublai, the terror of the world.  It was the time when the whole nation was full of martial spirit.  It is beyond doubt that to these rising Samurais, rude and simple, the philosophical doctrines of Buddhism, represented by Ten Dai and Shin Gon, were too complicated and too alien to their nature.  But in Zen they could find something congenial to their nature, something that touched their chord of sympathy, because Zen was the doctrine of chivalry in a certain sense.

[FN#79] The Samurai Government was first established by Yoritomo, of the Minamoto family, in 1186, and Japan was under the control of the military class until 1867, when the political power was finally restored to the Imperial house.

[FN#80] They were degenerated monks (who were called monk-soldiers), belonging to great monasteries such as En-ryaku-ji (Hi-yei), Ko-fuku-ji (at Nara), Mi-i-dera, etc.

5.  The Resemblance of the Zen Monk to the Samurai.