Kakusan-ni (Japanese: , August 10, 1252 â November 15, 1306), also known as Kakusan Shidà  (è¦Âå±±å¿ÂéÂÂ), was a Japanese Buddhist nun and widow of Hà Âjà  Tokimune (1251âÂÂ1284), the eighth Shikken regent of the Kamakura shogunate. She was the founding abbess of Tà Âkei-ji temple in Kamakura, noted for its long history as a refuge for women seeking divorce from their husbands. Her many other names included and the posthumous name of Chà ÂonâÂÂin.
Lady Horiuchi was born in 1252 to the powerful Adachi clan. Her father was Yoshikage, the commander of Akita Castle; her mother was the daughter of Hà Âjà  Tokifusa. 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.
In 1261, Lady Horiuchi married Hà Âjà  Tokimune when she was nine, and he was ten years old. They moved together from the Adachi household to Tokimune's own residence. Nearly seven years later, Tokimune became regent to the shà Âgun, and de facto the most powerful man in the country. As a young woman from the samurai or warrior class, she always carried a ten-inch-long samurai knife.
At the age of 19, Lady Horiuchi gave birth to a son, Hà Âjà  Sadatoki, Tokimune's legitimate heir. Sadatoki's wet nurse was the wife of Taira no Yoritsuna, who would later wield influence over her son.
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.
Both Lady Horiuchi and Hà Âjà  Tokimune studied the practice of Zen Buddhism, including meditation, under Mugaku Sogen (1226âÂÂ1286), who emigrated from Song dynasty China and became the founding abbott of Engaku-ji. In light of their shared interest in religion and spirituality, historians have speculated that Horiuchi and Tokimune were happily married.
In early 1284, Lady Horiuchi and Tokimune took the tonsure, shaving their heads after Tokimune suddenly became ill. She was given the Buddhist name Kakusan Shidà Â, and took on the robes of a nun. Mugaku composed several verses in Chinese to commemorate the occasion of their conversion, including "Shidà  Daishi [i.e., Kakusan] Takes the Tonsure".
In 1284, Tokimune died at the young age of 34. Their 13-year-old son Sadatoki succeeded Tokimune as Hà Âjà  regent. Under the influence of his advisor Taira no Yoritsuna, many members of the Adachi clan, including Kakusan's brother and former guardian Yasumori, were assassinated in what came to be called the Shimotsuki ("Eleventh Month") incident. Many suspected followers of Yasumori were attacked and killed, and more than 50 men committed suicide following the incident, while still others went into exile.
In 1285, Kakusan-ni and Sadatoki founded TÃ Âkei-ji as a Rinzai sect convent located near Engaku-ji, now part of North Kamakura. Kakusan was the founding abbess, while Sadatoki was the lay patron. From TÃ Âkeiji, Kakusan-ni would have been able to see the former home she had shared with Tokimune.
Despite her popular reputation as the founder of Tà Âkei-ji as a âÂÂdivorce templeâÂÂ, there is no hard evidence confirming that Kakusan-ni had specifically intended Tà Âkei-ji as a refuge for women fleeing their husbands. One historical text suggests that Kakusan-ni had asked her son Sadatoki to enact a temple law at Tà Âkei-ji to help women seeking separation from their husbands, and that he in turn asked the emperor, who approved the request. Although temple tradition maintains that Tà Âkei-ji was authorized from the start to grant divorces to women who had served in its convent for a period of time, the earliest divorce certificate the temple has in its records is dated 1783. Other historians have pointed to the short story, Karaito-zà Âshi, which depicts Tà Âkei-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 TÃ Âkei-ji initially had its roots in providing asylum more generally, and that its function as a divorce temple was a later development.
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.
In 1545, the Rinzai monk Muin Hà Âjà  published a compilation of Kamakura Zen kà Âan, called Word Weeds in Southern Sagami Province. The volume includes several anecdotes about Kakuzan Shidà Â.
According to the kà Âan, in 1304, Shidà  was conferred the inka or "seal of succession" as a Zen Buddhist master, by Tà Âkei, 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, Shidà  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?"
Another kà Âan 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 TÃ Âkeiji, who would meditate on the question: "Where is a single feeling, a single thought, in the mirror image at which I gaze?"
Kakusan-ni is believed to be buried at Butsunichian, the Hà Âjà  family memorial at Engakuji, along with Tokimune. After her death in 1306, she was given the name Chà ÂonâÂÂin. In 1384, a fire destroyed the Garland Stupa at Engaku-ji, and the fate and whereabouts of Kakusan-ni's copy of the Garland Sutra, if it still exists, are unknown.
According to temple historians, TÃ Âkei-ji retained the temple law allowing women to cut ties with their husbands, for more than 600 years. During the Edo period, TÃ Âkei-ji was one of two temples recognized by the Tokugawa shogunate as asylums for women. The divorce law was abolished in 1871 due to anti-Buddhist sentiment, and the temple ceased to be a nunnery in 1902.
In 2001, NHK broadcast a year-long historical TV drama series titled Hà Âjà  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.