Koho Kakumyo

Kohō Kakumyō (1271–1361) was a Japanese Rinzai master known for his rigorous teaching style and his wide-ranging study under multiple teachers. He first trained under Shinchi Kakushin, inheriting the Hottō lineage, and then traveled to Yuan dynasty China, where he studied under the eminent master Zhongfeng Mingben. He also studied with the Sōtō teacher Keizan Jōkin, giving him an unusually broad perspective across Zen lineages.

Kohō became known as a demanding and exacting teacher. His most notable student was the unconventional master Bassui Tokushō, whose awakening Kohō personally confirmed. Through Bassui and his other students, Kohō's influence helped sustain the intensity of koan-centered Rinzai practice during a period when Japanese Zen institutions were increasingly entangled with political patronage and formalism.