Nōnin

Dainichibō Nōnin (大日房能忍^?) (fl. 1190s) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who introduced the concept of Zen to Japan. He did not receive any formal dharma transmission, but invented his own teachings, which he called the "Japan Bodhidharma School", or Darumashū. Later, he dispatched one of his disciples to China to receive a letter of approval from Zhuóān Déguāng (拙庵德光, 1121–1203). His school was quickly eclipsed and did not influence either of major schools of Zen, Rinzai and Sōtō, which later arrived in Japan via more traditional means, but his unorthodox teaching was later brought up in Nichiren's writings in order to criticize it and, by extension, Zen generally.