One of the many technical terms in a Zen monastery that even present day Japanese hardly understand is “tosu”.
The oldest and biggest tosu in Japan can be found in Tofukuji in Kyoto. Today it is used as a zazen hall, but originally it used to be a huge toilet. The literal meaning of “tosu” is being in charge of the East, but most tosu buildings seem to be located on the Western side of the monastery compounds.
Today, in Tofukuji as well as Eiheiji and most other Zen monasteries, the monks flush their toilets. Some even have washlets. You will have to search for places like Antaiji where the manure from the toilets is still collected in tanks and used to fertilize the fields.
Here Jinen empties the tank to transport manure to the carrots, so they can grow until the winter.
Other work today includes spreading straw and rice powder in the harvested rice fields, collecting persimmons, and tending to the gardens.
And our genius mechanic Tobi gives his loves to the machines, as always. seen here with Adrian repairing the brakes and cleaning the caterpillar with his new “water pistol”: