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".

Part of a series on
Zen
Main articles Zen Chinese Chán Vietnamese Thiền Korean Seon Japanese Zen Zen in the USA Category: Zen Buddhism
Persons Chán in China Bodhidharma Huineng (Enō) Mazu Daoyi (Baso) Shitou Xiqian (Kisen) Dongshan Liangjie (Tozan) Xuefeng Yicun (Seppo) Linji Yixuan (Rinzai) Dahui Zonggao (Tahui) Zen in Japan Dogen Hakuin Seon in Korea Jinul Seongcheol Zen in the USA D.T. Suzuki Hakuun Yasutani Taizan Maezumi Shunryu Suzuki Seung Sahn Category: Zen Buddhists
Doctrines Zen and Sutras Doctrinal background of Zen Buddha-nature Yogacara Sunyata Bodhisattva
Traditions Dharma transmission Zen lineage charts Zen ranks and hierarchy Zen organisation and institutions Zen Narratives
Awakening Kensho Satori Sudden Enlightenment Silent illumination
Teachings Ten Ox-Herding Pictures Five ranks of Tozan Three mysterious Gates Four Ways of Knowing
Practice Zazen / Shikantaza Kōan practice
Schools East Mountain Teaching Hongzhou school Five Houses of Chán Rinzai school Sōtō school Sanbo Kyodan White Plum Asanga
Related Schools Huayan Tiantai Pure Land Buddhism

Gotō Zuigan (後藤 瑞巌, 1879–1965) was a Rinzai master and chief abbot of Myōshin-ji and Daitoku-ji, at that time the most important position in Rinzai^[clarify], and former president of "Rinzai University".

Biography

Zuigan was a member of a group of fourteen who went to the US with Tetsuo Sōkatsu in 1906, attempting strawberry farming in Hayward, California, returning to Japan in 1910. He received his inka from Sokatsu in 1916 and spent fifteen years as a missionary in Seoul.

Author Huston Smith was his student for fifteen years, and was one of four students ordained by Sokatsu Shaku. Another of Gotō Zuigan's students was Walter Nowick, who went to Japan in 1950 to study Zen with Zuigan Gotō at Daitoku-ji. Nowick stayed in Japan some sixteen years until the death of Zuigan Gotō in 1965.

The Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering lived a year and a half in Daitoku-Ji with Nowick under Zuigan's successor Oda Sessō, and described this in The Empty Mirror. Sōkō Morinaga, Nowick's Dharma brother, wrote in Novice to Master about traditional practices at the time Nowick first went to Japan.

Dharma heirs

• Oda Sessō
• Sōkō Morinaga

See also

• Buddhism in Japan
• List of Rinzai Buddhists

Sources

• Fields, Rick (1992), How the Swans Came to the Lake. A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Boston & London: Shambhala 
• Kraft, Kenneth (1988). Zen, Tradition and Transition: A Sourcebook by Contemporary Zen Masters and Scholars. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3162-X. 
• Levine, Gregory P.A. (2005). Daitokuji: The Visual Cultures of a Zen Monastery. University of Washington Press. p. 316. ISBN 0-295-98540-2. 
• Miura, Isshu; Ruth Fuller Sasaki (1993). The Zen Koan: Its History and Use in Rinzai Zen. HBJ. ISBN 0-15-699981-1. 
• Smith, Houston; Philip Novak (2004). Buddhism: A Concise Introduction. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-073067-6. 
• Stirling, Isabel. "Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki" (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-110-3