Tetsugyū Dōki

Tetsugyū Dōki ( Japanese 鉄 牛 道 機 ; * August 25, 1628 ( Kan'ei 5/7/26) in Nagato Province ; † October 2, 1700 in Edo ) was a monk of the Ōbaku-shū of Japanese Zen Buddhism who helped build the young organization.

Life path

Tetsugyū Dōki's father was called Masuda , his mother Nagatomi . When Tetsugyū was seven years old, the family moved to live with her mother's parents after their house burned down. When he was eleven he was sent to a temple and ordained there when he was fifteen. Allegedly due to overexertion caused by excessive sutras reading, he became partially blind for about three years. After his eyesight had improved again, he went on a journey.

In 1648 he entered the Myōshin-ji , the Rinzai-shū , in Kyōto . Despite his youth, he received several offers to become head of smaller temples in the Kansai region until 1654 , which he turned down, however, because he was not satisfied with his progress as a meditator. He saw studying under a Chinese master of Ōbaku-shū residing in Japan as a substitute for a stay in China, which was impossible due to the ban on leaving the country when the country was closed.

The superiors of the Myōshin-ji line, probably for fear of losing his talent, refused him permission for such studies twice. In 1654 he had planned to pay his respects to the elderly Yin-Yüan in Nagasaki . Later he wanted to enter the Fukusai-ji ( 福 済 寺 ) under the guidance of the Mu-an . In 1655 he finally got to Nagasaki, where he was accepted into Zenrin-ji , a branch temple of Myōshin-ji. He managed to get permission to join the Mu-ans Congregation. Since at that time the ubaku-shū was not yet organized as a separate line, he was able to take a leading position in the Myōshin-ji again in 1659.

After the differences between the two schools after the establishment of the Mampuku-ji worsened, Tetsugyū decided in 1664 for the Obaku. He was ordained again by Mu-an, who had meanwhile become the second abbot of Mampuku-ji. In 1666 he received inka ( 印 可 ) from Mu-an, who also used him the following year as his first Dharma successor .

In Edo , Tetsugyū took over the post of abbot in Zuishō-ji in 1675 . As the chief Obaku monk in Edo, he was often involved with Bakufu . As early as 1676 he was received in an audience by Tokugawa Ietsuna . In Edo-jō he held lectures for Tokugawa Tsunayoshi for several months in 1694/5 . When his teacher died, he directed the funeral in 1684. Through his connections to the sword nobility he was able to find donors for several temples of his school, so that 20 temples lead him as founder or innovator. In doing so, he contributed significantly to the establishment of an organization for his young sect. Before his death in the eighth month of 1700, he named a total of 34 Dharma followers. The Chōshō line goes back to him.

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

Remarks

1. ↑ Japanese calendar

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Tetsugyū is the family name, Dōki the first name.