Chōon Dōkai

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Chōon Dōkai ( Japanese 潮音 道 海 ; * December 5, 1628 (traditionally: Kan'ei 5/11/10) in the Japanese province of Higo ; † 1695 ) was an early Japanese convert to Ōbaku-shū of Japanese Zen as a monk -Buddhism, which through its proselytizing among the people and the founding of temples helped to build up the young organization.

Life path

His mother died when he was five years old, after which he was raised by his maternal grandmother. When he was nine years old, he was given to the local Buddhist temple, where he was ordained at 13. When he was 17, he went on a journey.

Chōon planned to study Confucian teachings in Kyoto , and he wanted to be instructed by the well-known Zen masters of the region. In Kyoto he first came into contact with the teachings of the Chinese master of the Yüan dynasty Chun-feng Ming-pen (1263-1323; Japanese Chūhōn Myōhon ). He hoped to be instructed by descendants of this line. Therefore he made his way to Isshi Monju ( 一 糸 文字 ) in Eigan-ji , but only reached it after the master's death. He stayed there for several years, practicing in a hermitage for a long time.

In 1654 he returned to his native Kyūshū , where he entered the Sofuku-ji at Tao-che ( Chinese  道 者 ) . He also spent a period of meditation under Yin-Yüan in Mampuku-ji , the main temple of the nascent Ōbaku-shū . After further years of wandering he then turned completely to the Ōbaku style of Zen in 1661, although Yin-yüan only accepted him as a student after the intervention of Tu-chan (Japanese: Dokutan ).

During his early years in Mampuku-ji, he practiced under all three Chinese founding fathers of the school. In 1663 he received the Ōbaku ordinaton and took over administrative functions in the temple. In 1665 he accompanied Mu-an on his way to an audience with the Shogun . During his time in Edo he made contacts with the sword nobility and was invited to teach there soon after. From Mu-an he was commissioned in 1671 to supervise the construction of the Zuishō-ji . In the same year he received inka ( 印 可 ) as confirmation of his enlightenment. At the invitation of high-ranking samurai, he became the founding father of 22 Ōbaku temples over the next few years, most of which are located in the provinces of Shinano and Kōzuke . However, he also proselytized among the common people. He is said to have taken lay vows from up to 100,000 believers.

Chōon's interests were not limited to Zen throughout his life, he also dealt intensively with classical Japanese history and Shinto . He also wrote comments on the latter. In 1682 those responsible at the Ise Shrine protested against a xylographic edition of Sendai kuji daiseikyō that he had initiated in 1679 . The Bakufu ordered a destruction of the printing plates and placed Chōon under house arrest, which was limited to 50 days at the request of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's mother .

Chōon severely criticized the Kōan practice common in Rinzai-shū as a formalized counting. He also turned against the partially practiced indirect transmission of the Dharma from master to student.

Literature and Sources

  • Helen Baroni: Obaku Zen. The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa Japan . University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2000, ISBN 0-8248-2195-5
  • Dieter Schwaller: Impure Zen? two texts by the Ōbaku monk Chōon Dōkai (1628–1695) . Peter Lang, Bern a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-906755-68-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Conversion of the traditional Japanese lunar calendar date with NengoCalc according to Reinhard Zöllner : Japanese time calculation . Iudicium Verlag, Munich 2003
personal data
SURNAME Chōon, Dōkai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 潮音 道 海 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese convert to Obaku school and missionary
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1628
PLACE OF BIRTH Higo Province , Kyushu
DATE OF DEATH 1695