Umpo Zenjo

Umpō Zenjō (d. 1659) was a Rinzai priest at Zuiō-ji temple who is remembered primarily as the first teacher and eventual dharma heir-maker of Bankei Yōtaku. When the restless young Bankei came to him burning with questions about the meaning of "bright virtue" (meiji toku) — the term he had encountered in Confucian texts — Umpō did not offer intellectual explanations but instead pointed Bankei toward seated meditation as the only path to genuine understanding.

Although Umpō could not satisfy Bankei's deepest questioning — which drove the young seeker to years of extreme ascetic practice — he recognized the depth of Bankei's realization when it finally came. On his deathbed, Umpō formally made Bankei his dharma heir, acknowledging that his student had surpassed him. This act of recognition gave Bankei the institutional legitimacy he needed to teach, even though Bankei's "Unborn" teaching was unlike anything in Umpō's own tradition.