Shoju Rojin

Shōju Rōjin (正受老人), formal name Dōkyō Etan (道鏡慧端, 1642–1721), was the *Rinka*-tradition master who served as Hakuin Ekaku's principal teacher and the figure who broke through the young Hakuin's premature confidence in his first awakening^[1]. He was the natural son of the daimyō Matsudaira Tadatomo and a maidservant; his identification as the lay-name "Old Man of Shōju-an" derives from the small hermitage at Iiyama in Shinano where he taught a deliberately small circle of students throughout his long life^[2].

The standard account, preserved most fully in Hakuin's own *Itsumadegusa*, describes Shōju's relentless testing of Hakuin during the eight-month visit of 1708 — most famously the moment when Shōju, having heard Hakuin claim that Buddha and Dharma were no more than the sound of crows, replied "How will you describe being kicked off the back of the floor?" and then knocked him into a courtyard ditch^[3]. The episode and Shōju's continuing pressure on Hakuin afterwards forced the deeper *post-satori* training that Hakuin later codified into the curriculum of mature koan investigation that defined modern Rinzai practice^[4].