Tetsugen, a devotee of Zen in Japan, decided to publish the sutras, which
at that time were available only in
Chinese. The books were to be printed with wood blocks in an edition of
seven thousand copies, a tremendous
undertaking.
Tetsugen began by travelling and collecting donations for this purpose. A
few sympathizers would give him a
hundred pieces of gold, but most of the time he received only small coins.
He thanked each donor with equal
gratitude. After ten years Tetsugen had enough money to begin his task.
It happened that at that time the Uji River overflowed. Famine followed.
Tetsugen took the funds he had collected
for the books and spent them to save others from starvation. Then he began
again his work of collecting.
Several years afterward an epidemic spread over the country. Tetsugen again
gave away what he had collected.
For a third time he started his work, and after twenty years his wish was
fulfilled. The printing blocks which
produced the first edition of sutras can be seen today in Obaku monastery
in Kyoto.
The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen made three sets of sutras,
and that the first two invisible sets surpass
even the last.
