Rinzai school
Though there were several attempts to establish Rinzai lines in Japan, it first took root in a lasting way through the efforts of the monk Myōan Eisai.
[3] Decades later, Nanpo Shōmyō (南浦紹明) (1235–1308), who also studied Linji teachings in China, founded the Japanese Ōtōkan lineage, the most influential and only surviving branch of the Rinzai school of Zen.
Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), with his vigorous zeal for koan-practice and his orientation towards common people, became the hero of a revigorized tradition of koan-study and an outreach to a lay-audience, and most Rinzai lineages claim descent from him, though his engagement with formal Rinzai-institution was minimal.
[9]Hakuin considered himself to be an heir of Shōju Rōnin (Dokyō Etan, 1642–1721), but never received formal dharma transmission from him.
[10][web 1] Nevertheless, through Hakuin, all contemporary Japanese Rinzai-lineages are considered part of the Ōtōkan lineage, brought to Japan in 1267 by Nanpo Jomyo, who received his dharma transmission in China in 1265.
[web 2] Tōrei Enji (1721–1792), who had studied with Kogetsu Zenzai, was a major student of Hakuin and an influential author, painter and calligrapher.
[11][12] He is the author of the influential The Undying Lamp of Zen (Shūmon mujintō ron), which presents a comprehensive system of Rinzai training.
"[16] Gasan's students Inzan Ien (1751–1814), who also studied with Gessen Zen'e,[web 3] and Takujū Kosen (1760–1833) created a systematized way of koan-study, with fixed questions and answers.
[web 4] All contemporary Japanese Rinzai-lineages, and their methods and styles of koan-study, stem from these two teachers,[17][18] though at the end of the Tokugawa-periond his line was at the brink of extinction.
Some influential modern Rinzai figures include Ōmori Sōgen (大森 曹玄, 1904–1994), Sōkō Morinaga (盛永 宗興, 1925–1995), Shodo Harada (原田 正道), Eshin Nishimura (西村 惠信; born 1933), Keidō Fukushima (福島 慶道, 1933 – 2011) and D.T.
Important Japanese sources of the Rinzai school include the works of Hakuin Ekaku and his student Tōrei Enji.
[22] A more modern overview of Japanese Rinzai praxis is Omori Sogen's Sanzen Nyumon (An Introduction to Zen Training).
[23] Contemporary Japanese Rinzai Zen is marked by its emphasis on kenshō (見性, "seeing one's/ self nature" or "to see clearly into the buddha-nature") as the gateway to authentic Buddhist practice.
This process may include standardized questions (sassho) and common sets of "capping phrases" (jakugo) or poetry citations that are memorized by students as answers.
[31] One influential figure was the Rinzai priest Takuan Sōhō who was well known for his writings on Zen and budō addressed to the samurai class (see The Unfettered Mind).
[32] In this regard, Rinzai is often contrasted with another sect of Zen deeply established in Japan, Sōtō, which has been called more gentle and even rustic in spirit.
[34][35] Certain Japanese arts such as painting, calligraphy, poetry, gardening, and the tea ceremony are also often used as methods of Zen cultivation in Rinzai.
These branches are purely organizational divisions arising from temple history and teacher-student lineage, and do not represent sectarian divides or fundamental differences in practice.
[38][39] In Europe there is Havredal Zendo established by a Dharma Heir of Eido Shimano, Egmund Sommer (Denko Mortensen).
This reflects the syncretistic tendencies that developed in Chinese Buddhism in the centuries after the earlier Rinzai lines had been transmitted to Japan.
