Yūkō Okamoto
Yūkō Okamoto
1935 – 2021
Gu'en Yūkō Okamoto (岡本有光, c. 1935 – 16 April 2021) was a Japanese Sōtō master and the 32nd abbot of Teishōji (貞祥寺) in Saku, Nagano Prefecture. His dharma name was Gu'en (弘圓)[2]. He succeeded his father Okamoto Taihō, the 31st abbot, who had maintained a close personal friendship with Kōdō Sawaki Zenji — a connection that brought Sawaki regularly to Teishōji for sesshin and that led the young Yūkō to train and practice with Sawaki during his formative years as a monk[2][3].
Through Sawaki's orbit he came to know Taisen Deshimaru, and over decades he became one of the principal Japanese supporters of Deshimaru's European mission — described in the AZI biographical record of Raphaël Dōkō Triet as "a friend of Master Deshimaru"[1]. Okamoto played an active behind-the-scenes role: he helped Deshimaru obtain the formal Sōtō shihō he required from Yamada Reirin Roshi of Sōjiji, assisted in securing Seikyūji as Deshimaru's Japanese temple, and officiated at the Hossenshiki ceremony for Deshimaru's European disciples[2][3]. When he later transmitted to the next generation of European teachers, he characteristically said: "I don't want you to become my disciples; I help you as I once helped Master Deshimaru" — framing the entire relationship as institutional continuity rather than personal lineage[3].
From 1997 onward Okamoto conferred shihō on a sequence of senior Deshimaru-line European teachers, each of whom performed the Zuise visits at Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji to complete their formal Sōtōshū recognition: Raphaël Dōkō Triet (1997)[1], Michel Meihō Reikū Bovay (1998)[2], Simone Jikō Wolf (2004), Gérard Chinrei Pilet (2009), and Eishuku Monika Leibundgut (Hossenshiki 2012, shihō 2013)[2]. These five transmissions anchor the Iberian/Andalusian Seikyūji and Lisbon networks (Triet), the Swiss-German Zen Dōjō Zürich network (Bovay → Leibundgut), and the Italian-Swiss Sanbō Dōjō network (Wolf) formally to the Japanese Sōtōshū through the Teishōji line. Master Deshimaru's principal tomb is located at Teishōji, and annual memorial sesshins were held there as long as Okamoto's health permitted[2].