Gotō Zuigan

Gotō Zuigan
Religion Rinzai
Personal
Born 1879
Japan
Died 1965
Senior posting
Based in Myōshin-ji
Daitoku-ji
Predecessor Tetsuo Sōkatsu
Successor Oda Sessō
Sōkō Morinaga
In this Japanese name, the family name is Gotō.

Gotō Zuigan (後藤 瑞巌, 1879–1965) was a Buddhist Rinzai Zen master[note 1] the chief abbot of Myōshin-ji and Daitoku-ji temples,[3] and a past president of Hanazono University of Kyoto, also known as "Rinzai University." [4][note 2]

Biography

Zuigan was influential in the development of Buddhism in American in the early 20th century. He was a student of the Zen master Tetsuo Sōkatsu and followed him to California in 1906 with a group of fourteen who went to the US with Tetsuo Sōkatsu in 1906, attempting strawberry farming in Hayward, California, and founding a branch of Ryomo Kyokai on Sutter Street in San Francisco.[5][note 3]

Zuigan returned to Japan in 1910. In 1916 Sōkatsu bestowed upon him the Inka Shōmei.[note 4] He then spent fifteen years as a missionary in Seoul.[3]

Later, he returned to Japan and taught at the temple Daitoku-ji in Kyoto.[3]

Notable students

Among Zuigan's notable students were:

Dharma heirs

See also

Notes

  1. "Shike", which is used for a select group of people, both in Rinzai and Soto, who are qualified to supervise the training of priests-to-be in the sodos, the training halls,[1][2]
  2. Rinzai is one of three major Zen sects in Japan, in addition to Sōtō and Obaku
  3. The Ryomo-kyokai may have been the first Zen center in modern Japan dedicated to teaching meditation to laypersons, and it became the model for the urban lay meditation centers that were so influential in the propagation of Zen practice in western America.[5]
  4. Inka Shomei, or Dharma transmission, qualifies one to train students within the Rinzai sect as a Shike (master).
  5. Darhma (dhamma) is a term for the collective teachings (doctrine or personal reality) of the Buddha.[8]

References

Sources



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