Banryo Zenso

Banryō Zensō (1849–1918) was a Rinzai master in the Myōshinji tradition, a student of Ogino Dokuen. He trained during a period when Japanese Buddhism was working to redefine itself in the face of Meiji-era modernization and the challenge of Western thought. He maintained the rigor of the Inzan koan curriculum.

His student Jōten Sōkō Miura rose to become the 624th kanchō (chief abbot) of Myōshin-ji, and through Miura, the lineage reached Joshu Sasaki, who would carry it to America. Banryō thus represents an essential link in the chain connecting Hakuin's reforms to contemporary Rinzai practice in the West.