 It might be added in this connection that Tokugawa Confucians often sought to outdo one another in their opposition to Buddhism. In one of his more tolerant moments, Jinsai wrote a farewell letter to a Buddhist monk, Dōkō (b: 1675?), who was about to depart Kyōto after a period of study there. In the letter, which Jinsai surely never meant to be construed as a definitive statement of his views on Buddhism, he praised Dōkō’s study of Confucianism. At one point, Jinsai graciously added, “From the perspective of scholars, both Confucianism (Ju) and Buddhism (Butsu) definitely exist. However from the vantage point of heaven and earth, there is most fundamentally neither Confucianism nor Buddhism. Rather, there is only one way and that is all.” Jinsai’s letter, which was subsequently published, shocked many Confucians who were far more doctrinaire in their opposition to Buddhism. One scholar, Satō Naokata (1650–1719), went so far as to republish Jinsai’s letter with a running commentary, sharply critical of both Buddhism and Jinsai. The latter was the subject of Naokata’s wrath because Jinsai, in Naokata’s intolerant view, had been insufficiently hostile to the “evil thing,” namely, Buddhism.