Biography

Keizan Jōkin 螢山紹瑾 (1268–1325), also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi, was the second of the great founders of the Sōtō

Soto

Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...

 Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 sect in Japan. While Dōgen Zenji, as founder of Japanese Sōtō

Soto

Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...

, is known as , Keizan is often referred to as Taiso (太祖), or Greatest Patriarch. Keizan and his disciples are credited with beginning the spread of Sōtō Zen throughout Japan, away from the cloistered monastic practice characteristic of Dōgen's Eiheiji, and towards a more popular religion that appealed to all levels of Japanese society. Keizan founded several temples throughout his lifetime, most notably Yōkōji and Daihonzan Sōjiji (originally founded on the Noto Peninsula

Noto Peninsula

thumb|right|240px|Landsat image with high-resolution data from Space Shuttle.Noto Peninsula is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Ishikawa prefecture in central Honshū, the main island of Japan...

, and moved to Tsurumi

Tsurumi

Tsurumi is a Japanese surname, placename, and the name of at least one business.Places :*Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama**Tsurumi Station**Tsurumi Line*Tsurumi River, Kanagawa*Tsurumi-ku, Osaka*Tsurumi, ŌitaPeople:*Atsuko Tsurumi , artist...

 in Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 in 1911). Today Sōjiji and Eiheiji stand together as the two principal Sōtō Zen training centers in Japan.

Keizan spent the first eight years growing up under the care of his grandmother, Myōchi, who was one of Great Master Dōgen's first supporters on his return from China. Keizan always acknowledged a great debt to this grandmother by dedicating the Kannon (Avalokiteshwara) shrine at the temple of Yōkōji to her memory. Keizan also praised his mother very highly in his autobiography, and even said that his mother's wishes and her constant prayers to Kannon had enabled him to become a monk, receive the Dharma transmission and become one of the Soto Zen Ancestors. His mother had become the Abbess of a Soto Zen convent Jōjuji, and was a teacher in her own right. It seems that his mother had a huge influence both as an example of someone who encouraged the teaching of Buddhism to women and through her emphasis on the power of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. (Bodiford 1993: ch 8 & 248). Keizan first became a novitiate at Eiheiji at the age of 8 under the tutelage of Gikai, and he was formally ordained at age 13 by Ejō

EJO

EJO may refer to:In organizations:* European Journalism Observatory, a media research institute at the University of LuganoIn people:* Elsie J. Oxenham , UK writer* Edward James Olmos , American actor...

. He reached the stage of non-backsliding while training with Jakuen

Jakuen

Jìyuán , better known to Buddhist scholars by his Japanese name Jakuen, was a Chinese Zen monk and a disciple of Rujing. Most of his life is known to us only through medieval hagiography, legends, and sectarian works. It is generally agreed, though, that during his time at Tiāntóng Mountain he...

, and received dharma transmission

Dharma transmission

Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...

 from Tettsū Gikai

Tettsu Gikai

Tettsū Gikai received dharma transmission from Koun Ejō and is considered his spiritual successor by the Sōtō school of Zen...

 at the age of 32. All of this was recorded in his autobiography; he was the first Japanese Zen monk to describe his own life. (Faure 2000:31)

While Keizan is often spoken of as the fourth generation Dharma heir of Dōgen, many English sources erroneously assume that Keizan held the abbotship of Eiheiji. He, in fact, never did so. The fourth generation abbot of Eiheji was Giun, who replaced Gikai after the latter was forced out of Eihei-ji in what is known as the sandai sōron

Sandai soron

The sandai sōron , or third-generation differentiation, was a dispute over the orthodoxy and succession of Sōtō Zen Buddhism. The major figures involved were Jakuen, Gikai, Gien, and Giin, all of whom claimed the right to serve as abbot of Eihei-ji...

. Keizan did succeed Gikai as the second abbot of Daijōji, in present day Kanazawa. However, his major accomplishment which gave rise to his status as "second patriarch" of Sōtō Zen was the founding of Sōjiji, which soon overshadowed Eiheiji as the principal Sōtō temple. Sōjiji eventually became the institutional head of four regional networks with several thousand temples under them. By 1589 the imperial court recognized Sōjiji as the head temple of the Soto school, above Eiheiji. The two remained rivals for imperial support but by the time of the Meiji restoration in 1872, they founded a truce, acknowledging this in the form of words that the Sōtō school followed “the maxims of the founding Patriarch, Dōgen, and the aspirations of the late teacher, Keizan.” (Bodiford 1993: chapter 8)

Keizan died at Yōkōji on the 29th day of the 9th month of 1325, at the age of 58 years. Meiho Sotetsu (1277-1350) became Abbot of Yōkōji and Gasan Abbot of Sōjiji. Both lines of the Dharma Transmission remain important in Japanese Sōtō Zen. (Jiyu-Kennett 2002: 97)

Support for training of women

Apart from extending the appeal of Sōtō Zen to the rural population, Keizan made efforts to encourage the training of women in Buddhism. Keizan in his autobiography gave much credit to his grandmother and mother. He regarded their support as vital to his own training, and this must have influenced him. Keizan had a nunnery constructed near Yōkōji (eventually making Sonin the Abbess) and made sure funds were allocated for its continuing survival (Faure 2000: 42). It is believed that five monasteries for female monks were established by Keizan (Matsuo 2010: 143). He also named Sonin, the wife of the original donor of Yōkōji, as a Dharma Heir (Faure 2000: 44).

Writings

Keizan was the author of a number of works including the "Zazen Yōjinki" and, most famously, the Denkōroku

Denkoroku

, written by Keizan Jokin Zenji in 1300, is a kōan collection of 53 enlightenment stories based on the traditional legendary accounts of the Zen transmission between successive masters and disciples in the Sōtō Zen Buddhist lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha to Japanese Zen Master Ejō, a first...

 (literally "Transmission of the Light"), which is a series of fifty-one sermons which details linearly the Sōtō

Soto

Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...

 Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

 through the Indian Patriarchs, from Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...

 and the Chinese Patriarchs, and finally the Japanese patriarchs Dōgen and his immediate successor to Eiheiji, Ejō. The Denkōroku begins as follows:
(Denkōroku 2001: 1)

Legacy

Keidō Chisan Kohō Zenji Abbot of Sōji-ji in the 1960s wrote in Sōtō Zen:
“In religions, on the one hand, we must go forward ever deepening our religious experiences, while, on the other hand, recognizing our mission to guide other people to the depths of our own experience. We must enable them to know the joy that comes from the knowledge of the Dharma and the bliss that comes from the practice of meditation. It is absolutely essential to have a personal character like that of Great Master Keizan in order to carry out this mission. To regard all people with warm affection, to become the friend of the common people, to enter the realm of the ideal together with them and to share one's joy with others – these are the characteristics of the true man of religion. The Sōtō School believes that it is able to fulfill its basic mission because of the stern father like character of Dōgen and the compassionate mother-like character of Keizan.” (Keidō Chisan 1960: 69-70)