According to its colophon, this chapter of the Shôbôgenzô was composed in the seventh month of 1243, at Kôshôji, Dôgen's monastery just south of the capital (present-day Kyoto). Since during this month Dôgen is thought to have left Kôshôji for his new residence in Echizen (present-day Fukui), Kattô may be the last work of the Shôbôgenzô he composed in the capital area.

The title of the chapter, translated loosely here as "twining vines," is made up of two terms denoting climbing plants -- the former, sometimes translated "arrowroot," is regularly used for the kudzu vine; the latter is most often taken as wisteria. Together, the term kattô has the colloquial sense, often encountered in Zen texts, of an "entanglement," a "complexity," "complication," or "difficulty." Zen texts typically treat the term as referring to (especially intellectual and linguistic) obstacles to be cut through, but Dôgen prefers to see it here as the "entanglement," or "intertwining," of master and disciple.

Thus, while seemingly inspired by a saying about vines by Dôgen's master, Tiantong Rujing, the bulk of this short text is taken up with the question of transmission of the dharma from master to disciple -- especially the famous account of the First Zen Patriarch Bodhidharma's transmission to his disciple Huike. Here, Dôgen cites the story of Bodhidharma's four disciples, from which derives the Zen expression "skin, flesh, bones, and marrow," and argues against the common notion that these four terms signify a hierarchy of understanding.

Finally, Dôgen closes with a note dismissing the legend that, after transmitting the dharma to Huike, Bodhidharma returned to India.

This translation is based on the text edited by Kawamura Kôdô, in Dôgen zenji zenshû (1991), pp. 416-422. The online version here reflects the translation published in Dharma Eye 17 (spring 2006); a more fully annotated version will become available on this site in due course. For examples of other English versions of this chapter, see Nishiyama and Stevens, Shôbôgenzô, volume 2 (1977); Tanahashi, Moon in a Dewdrop (1985); Yokoi, The Shobo-genzo (1986); and Nishijima and Cross, Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, book 3 (1997).