ABSTRACT
Readers of Zen At War will recall that I touched on the wartime activities of both Seki Seisetsu and his equally famous disciple Yamada Mumon at some length.2 As for Sagen, I noted that he was closely connected to the Toyama family, the head of which, Toyama Mitsuru (1855-1944), was the dean ofJapan's prewar and wartime ultranationalists for whom intimidation, blackmail, and assassination, both at home and abroad, were routine occurrences.3 What I didn't know at the time was the important role Sagen played in the events that both preceded and followed Aizawa Sabura's assassination of General Nagata Tetsuzan as described in the previous chapter.
