Keizan

Infobox Buddhist biography
name = Keizan Jōkin Zenji


img_size =
img_capt =
landscape =
birth_name =
other_names = Taiso Jōsai Daishi
dharma_name =
birth_date = 1268
birth_place = Japan
death_date = 1325
death_place =
nationality =
denomination = Zen Buddhism
school = Soto
lineage =
title = Zen Master
Taiso
workplace =
education =
occupation =
teacher =
reincarnation_of =
predecessor =
successor =
student =
spouse =
partner =
children =
website =

Keizan Jōkin Zenji 瑩山紹瑾禅師 (1268-1325) also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi, was the second of the great founders of the Sōtō Zen sect in Japan. WhileDōgen Zenji, as founder of Japanese Sōtō, is known as Kōso 高祖　(Highest Patriarch) 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, and moved to Tsurumi in Yokohama in 1911). Today Sōjiji and Eiheiji stand together as the two principal Sōtō Zen training centers in Japan.

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.

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 Eiheji in what is known as the "Third Generation Problem." Keizan "did" succeed Gikai as the second abbot of Daijōji, in present day Kanazawa.)

Keizan was the author of a number of works including the "Zazen Yōjinki" and, most famously, the Denkōroku (literally "Transmission of the Light"), which is a series of fifty-one sermons which details linearly the Sōtō Zen lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha through the Indian Patriarchs, from Bodhidharma and the Chinese Patriarchs, and finally the Japanese patriarchs Dōgen and his immediate successor to Eiheiji, Ejō.

Keizan died at Yōkōji on the 29th day of the 9th month of 1325, at the age of 58 years.

References

* Roshi P. T. N. Jiyu Kennett, Zen is Eternal Life, Shasta Abbey Press, 4th edition, 2000, ISBN 0930066200
* Keizan Zenji, Denkoroku, translated by Rev. Hubert Nearman, Shasta Abbey Press, 2001, ISBN 0930066227