Gudo Toshoku

Gudo Toshoku was a major Rinzai Zen master of the early Edo period who played an important role in reforming and revitalizing the Rinzai school before Hakuin's more comprehensive revival. He served as abbot of Myoshinji and was known for his insistence on strict monastic discipline and genuine practice over the merely formal Zen that had become prevalent in many temples.

Gudo's reforms prepared the ground for Hakuin's later transformation of the Rinzai school. By reasserting the importance of authentic practice and personal realization, he helped create the conditions in which Hakuin's systematic approach to koan training could take root. His lineage through subsequent generations contributed to maintaining the Rinzai tradition's vitality during the transition to the Edo period.