Juo Sohitsu
Juo Sohitsu
1296 – 1380
Juō Sohitsu (1296–1380) was a fourteenth-century Rinzai master in the Myōshin-ji line of the Ōtōkan transmission, the Dharma heir of Kanzan Egen (1277–1360) — the founding abbot of Myōshin-ji — and the teacher who transmitted to Muin Soin (1326–1410). He thus stood in the first generation after Myōshin-ji's founding (1342), responsible for carrying Kanzan's austere, anti-Gozan practice ethic into the next decades[1].
As Kanzan's heir, Juō inhabited the difficult position of preserving a newly established temple's distinctive character in the face of the Gozan system's administrative dominance. Kanzan had explicitly refused to integrate Myōshin-ji into the Five Mountains hierarchy, and Juō's generation had to sustain that institutional independence without the court patronage that the Gozan temples enjoyed. Dumoulin's account of the early Myōshin-ji line emphasises how Kanzan's legacy of austerity and independence was preserved through these direct personal-transmission relationships — the chain from Kanzan through Juō to Muin Soin being one of the earliest links in a lineage that would eventually reshape Japanese Rinzai through Gudō Tōshoku and Hakuin Ekaku[1].
Names
Disciples of Juo Sohitsu
Teachers and lineage of Juo Sohitsu
Teacher / root master:
Teachings
During a period of political disruption that threatened the Daitoku-ji community's stability, Juō told the assembly: 'A flame does not become less fire because the wind is strong. It may become smaller. It may move sideways. But if it does not go out, it is still fire, and fire is what matters. Survive. Practice. Pass it on. The great teachers did not live in peaceful times either.'
- dialogueOn the Ōtōkan Bone
A monk asked Juō: 'What is the essential teaching of the Ōtōkan line?' Juō held up his fist. Monk: 'And if I open the fist?' Juō opened his hand, then closed it again. Monk: 'I still do not see it.' Juō: 'Then you have seen something more important: your own not-seeing. Start from there.'
Other masters in Rinzai
Master Record Sources
- datesZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
1296-1380
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Juo Sohitsu
- schoolZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Rinzai
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Kanzan Egen