The essence of Soto Zen was transmitted during the Kamakura period in Japan approximately eight hundred years ago by Dogen Zenji.

Anti-immigration laws at that time made it extremely difficult for people of Japanese descent to purchase land in the United States.

Koun Yamada served as Bishop of North America at Zenshuji for almost four years prior to his return to Japan to become president of Komazawa University and eventually abbot of Eiheiji.

Bishop Kenko Yamashita is also a key figure in Zenshuji's history; having served as general supervisor for 26 years from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s.

Shumyo Kojima is chartered with Zenshuji's ongoing mission to offer the ethnically diverse area of Los Angeles guidance in the practice of Soto Zen to those interested in satisfying a spiritual, intellectual, or social need.