Koho Kakumyo

Kōhō Kakumyō (孤峰覚明, 1271–1361) is one of the most cross-affiliated figures in early-medieval Japanese Zen. He first received Dharma transmission within Shinchi Kakushin's Hottō line, then travelled to Yuan-dynasty China around 1311 and studied under the major Yangqi-line Linji master Zhongfeng Mingben on Mount Tianmu, returning to Japan with that additional transmission as well^[1]. On his return he is also documented as having spent time in the early Sōtō community around Keizan Jōkin — leaving him with formal ties to three distinct Zen lineages, an unusual situation in an age that increasingly hardened sectarian boundaries^[2].

Kōhō became known as a demanding teacher who continued the koan-centred severity of his Chinese training in spite of the increasingly literary and patronage-oriented Gozan establishment around him. His best-known student is the recluse Bassui Tokushō, whose awakening he confirmed and whose own line through Bassui's heirs became one of the more austere streams of medieval Rinzai practice^[3].