Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1993 20/4 REVIEW ARTICLE Examining the Sources of Japanese Rinzai Zen

The history of Japanese Buddhism is replete with cliches, waiting to be swallowed whole by the unwary student. Most people, for example, associate the emergence of the Japanese Rinzai school with the second trip of Myoan Yosai to the Asian continent and his subsequent intro duction of Chinese Ch’an to Japan in 1191. Although it is true that Yosai played a certain role in establishing Zen Buddhism as a legiti mate, independent sect in Japan, he was not in fact the first person to bring the tradition to that land, nor was his lineage of great impor tance in the sect’s subsequent development there. If we examine the Rinzai school as it has survived up until the poaEaAeEdssSresent day, we find that the most dynamic and durable line has been the one transmitted to Japan by Nanpo Jomyo 南浦紹明（1235-1309)，better known by ms honorific title of Daio-kokushi 大應國師. Daio-kokushi was the teacher of Daito-kokushi 大燈國師（1282-1338)，from whom all the presently existing lines of Rinzai Zen descend