Background
Jōkin Keizan was born in 1268 in the province of Echizen.
瑩山紹瑾
Jōkin Keizan was born in 1268 in the province of Echizen.
After Gikai’s death in 1303, he succeeded him as head of Daijo-ji in the province of Kaga. He also founded the temples Soji-ji and Eiko-ji in the nearby province of Noto, spreading Soto teachings through the Hokuriku region of northwestern Honshu.
He entered the priesthood at an early age and studied under Koun Ejo and Tettsu Gikai of Eihei-ji, both of whom were disciples of Dogen, the founder of Eihei-ji and early proponent of Soto Zen teachings in Japan. He also studied under monks of the Rinzai branch of Zen such as Tozan Tansho, Hakuun Egyo, and Muhon Kakushin. He gained full enlightenment in 1294 under Tettsu Gikai and became his Dharma heir.
The Soto branch had in the past confined itself to the pure Zen teachings introduced to Japan by Dogen, but Keizan combined these with elements drawn from Esoteric Buddhism and Shinto and worked to put the prayers and ceremonies of the sect into order, actively seeking to spread its doctrines among the common people. He thus laid the foundations for the striking spread of Soto Zen in rural regions that was later to take place.
Among his disciples, Meiho Sotetsu and Gazan Shoseki were particularly outstanding. The latter is the founder of the so-called Gazan teaching line that became the central teaching line of the Soto branch of Zen.