Kōjun Kishigami

Kōjun Kishigami (岸上耕巖, born 1941 in Kagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese Sōtō Zen monk, a direct disciple of Kōdō Sawaki Roshi, and the founder of the Jinkoan hermitage in Mie Prefecture^[1]. He received dharma transmission (shihō) from Sawaki approximately one month before his master's death in December 1965, making him one of the youngest of Sawaki's recognised heirs^[1].

Following Sawaki's death he undertook a long period of training in Japan and Europe, and from the 1990s onward he was associated with the Sangha Sans Demeure / Zen Road network founded by Philippe Reiryū Coupey in Paris. On 31 August 2008, at the Dojo Zen de Paris, he conferred shihō on Coupey — the only publicly documented dharma transmission Kishigami has performed outside Japan, and the formal completion of a Sawaki → Kishigami → Coupey line that runs in parallel to the older Sawaki → Deshimaru → Coupey ordination line^[2][3].