Myōan Eisai

Myōan Eisai (1141–1215) was the monk who introduced Rinzai Zen from China to Japan and is also credited with establishing the tradition of tea cultivation that would evolve into the Japanese tea ceremony. A Tendai monk by original training, Eisai made two journeys to Song dynasty China, the second lasting from 1187 to 1191, during which he studied under the Linji master Xuan Huaichang on Mount Tiantai and received dharma transmission. He returned to Japan bearing not only the Linji teaching but also tea seeds and the Chinese methods of preparing powdered tea.

Eisai's efforts to establish Zen as an independent school in Japan met fierce resistance from the powerful Tendai establishment on Mount Hiei, which viewed the new meditation school as a threat. He responded with his treatise "Kōzen Gokoku Ron" (Propagation of Zen for the Protection of the Nation), arguing that Zen would strengthen rather than undermine Japanese Buddhism and the state. By allying himself with the warrior government in Kamakura, he secured patronage and founded Jufuku-ji in Kamakura and Kennin-ji in Kyoto, the latter being the first Zen monastery in the imperial capital. His "Kissa Yōjōki" (Drinking Tea for Health) promoted tea as both medicine and aid to meditation. Though later Rinzai masters would criticize Eisai's syncretism with Tendai and esoteric practices, he was the essential pioneer who opened the door through which all subsequent Japanese Zen passed.