Dōgen’s composition of the Shōbōgenzō unfolded in the early Kamakura period, a time when political authority in Japan was shifting from the aristocratic court in Kyoto to the emerging military government. The rise of the warrior class and the decline of the old courtly order created an atmosphere of instability and transformation, in which traditional structures no longer seemed secure. Within this unsettled world, the sense of impermanence was not merely a doctrinal teaching but a lived social reality. The Shōbōgenzō arises from this crucible of change, seeking to articulate a path of practice that could stand firm amid pervasive uncertainty.

Religiously, this period was marked by intense creativity and competition among Buddhist schools. Tendai and Shingon still held institutional power, yet new movements such as Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren Buddhism were redefining the landscape and appealing to broader segments of society. Dōgen’s work can be seen as a response to what he regarded as a decline in the quality and authenticity of Buddhist practice, especially where ritualism and institutional prestige overshadowed direct realization. Against this backdrop, the Shōbōgenzō functions as both critique and renewal, calling practitioners back to what Dōgen understood as the core of the Dharma.

Dōgen’s own journey is woven deeply into this context. Trained first in the Tendai tradition, he left Japan to study in China and encountered the Caodong (Sōtō) lineage under the guidance of Rujing. Returning home, he began to teach a Zen centered on shikantaza—“just sitting”—and on the inseparability of practice and realization. His writings, including the Shōbōgenzō, thus bear the imprint of both Chinese Chan training and a keen awareness of Japanese religious conditions, seeking to transplant what he had received abroad into a soil that was at once receptive and resistant.

Culturally and linguistically, Dōgen’s decision to write primarily in Japanese rather than in classical Chinese was itself a significant gesture. By addressing monks and educated lay followers in a more accessible language, he brought subtle doctrinal reflections into the living speech of his community. The Shōbōgenzō thus serves not only as a doctrinal statement for an emerging Sōtō Zen identity, but also as a daring experiment in Buddhist philosophical expression. In the midst of political upheaval and religious ferment, it stands as an effort to embody “authentic” Zen practice in a form attuned to the needs and capacities of medieval Japanese practitioners.