Gempō Yamamoto

Background

Yamamoto Gempo Roshi was born on January 28, 1865, in Wakayama prefecture. As a baby, he was put in a bamboo basket and left on the side of the road. A man named Okamoto adopted a child by naming him Yoshikichi.

Education

Like so many prolific Zen masters throughout the ages, Yamamoto had no formal education.

Career

Until the age of nineteen, Gempō Yamamoto worked in the mountains as a lumberjack and in the field as a farmer; in this way, he received practical knowledge without ever going to school. At the age of nineteen, he had a serious eye disease and threatened his blindness. With the suggestion of a friend, he began a pilgrimage to eighty-eight Buddhist temples on Shikoku Island. It was believed that even a hopeless disease could be cured when this pilgrimage with bare feet was made, so Gempo Roshi took off his shoes and set off.

A healthy pilgrim with good vision needed three months to cover the route, but Gempo Roshi took almost a whole year. By the time he was twenty-five, he had traveled around the island of Shikoku six times. During the seventh encirclement, he was physically, emotionally, and mentally finished, unable to continue. It was next to the thirty-third temple - the Rinzai Zen monastery called Sekkei-ji. The abbot of the temple helped Roshi and let him stay. At the age of twenty-six, Gempo Roshi decided to become a monk.

On the day of ordination, Roshi received the surname of the abbot, Yamamoto, and the name of Dharma Gempo. He stayed in Sekkei-ji for some time and then began a pilgrimage to various Zen monasteries. First, he went to Eigen-ji where he was received, but not as a monk but a kind of watchman, whose work and efforts gave the monks in the temple more time to practice zazen. Then he went to Shofuku-ji, Hofuku-ji and the Kokei monastery where he practiced with several different masters. During that period, he gradually regained his sight. Being in the monasteries, when he received an easier task and another monk got a harder job and much more difficult, Gempo Roshi exchanged tasks in exchange for help in reading and writing. In this way, he received official teachings.

When Gempo Roshi was forty-three years old, the teacher who ordained him died; he returned to Sekkei-ji where he became the abbot. However, he had a strong desire to continue Zen practice with the teacher, so after a few years he resigned from the abbot's position and went to Empuki-ji. There he practiced under the direction of Sohan Roshi. At the age of forty-nine, he became the successor of Dharma Sohana.

Although Master Hakuin and Master Torea founded Ryutaku-ji, the monastery was in a state of collapse and destruction. Gempo Roshi wanted to remain abbot there and restore active practice. He shared that feeling with Sohan Roshi by telling him that he would like to spend the rest of his life in Ryutaku-ji and look after the stupa of Master Hakuin and Torea.

At the age of sixty and not knowing any language, Gempo Roshi himself traveled the world. During that trip, he met briefly with Nyogen Senzaki, in San Francisco. After visiting the United States, he went to London, where he participated and spoke at the World Religions Conference.

Gempo Roshi and Soen Roshi met before 1936 and together they went to Manchuria to set up a branch of Myoshin-ji there. In 1949, Gempo Roshi officially appointed Soena Roshi Abbot Ryutaku-ji and gave him the Dharma message. While retired, Gempo Roshi gave energy to speech, helped prisoners studying the Dharma, painted calligraphies, and before his death, he twice made a pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku. In 1961, when Gempo Roshi was ninety-six, he died.

Achievements

• Yamamoto is probably most remembered for his many zenga paintings, which can be found hanging at Ryūtaku-ji today.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Hisashi

  • Fuji, The Essence of the God's Land

  • Endurance

  • Calligraphy

  • Lotus Tea Bowl

  • Mirror Mind

  • Profundity

  • Calligraphy

  • Compassion (literally Great Sorrow)

Religion

Yamamoto was a Rinzai Zen Buddhist priest. At the age of 25, he became ordained as a monk, traveling during this period to various temples throughout Japan.

Personality

One day Huai-Hais’ monks hid his gardening tools from him because they feared he had grown too weak to work. They refused to give him his tools despite his pleading, and he finally just stopped eating, saying, “No work, no eating.”

Physical Characteristics: By today's standards, Gempō would be deemed legally blind, and it was not until later in life that he was able to write and read.

Connections

tutor:

Sohan Roshi

successor :

Nakagawa Soen

successor :

Nakajima Genjo