Keido Fukushima
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Keidō Fukushima (福島 慶道,
Rōmaji The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as . Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Ch ...
: Fukushima Keidō, March 1, 1933 – March 1, 2011) was a
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
Rinzai The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...
Zen master Zen master is a somewhat vague English term that arose in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes used to refer to an individual who teaches Zen Buddhist meditation and practices, usually implying longtime study and subsequent authorizat ...
, head abbot of
Tōfuku-ji is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. Tōfuku-ji takes its name from two temples in Nara, Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji.Japan ReferenceTōfuku-ji/ref> It is one of the Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto". Its ...
(one of the main branches of the Rinzai sect), centered in
Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Because of openness to teaching
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
students, he had considerable influence on the development of Rinzai Zen practice in the West.


Biography


Zen studies

Fukushima became an acolyte monk at the age of thirteen under his original teacher Kidō Okada, abbot of Hōfuku-ji monastery in Okayama, Japan. Fukushima graduated from Otani University’s Department of Buddhist Studies in 1956, following completion of Otani’s doctoral course. In 1961 he began monastic training with
Zenkei Shibayama , a former Abbot of Nanzen-ji, was a Japanese Rinzai master well known for his commentary on the Mumonkan. One of his better-known students was Keido Fukushima, abbot of Tōfuku-ji is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. ...
at
Nanzen-ji , or Zuiryusan Nanzen-ji, formerly , is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Emperor Kameyama established it in 1291 on the site of his previous detached palace. It is also the headquarters of the Nanzen-ji branch of Rinzai Zen. The precincts o ...
Monastery in Kyoto. Fukushima’s main teacher, Zenkei Shibayama, was instrumental in helping to transplant Rinzai Zen to the West. He was one of the first Rinzai Zen masters to hold retreats in the United States, and to publish books in English: ''A Flower Does Not Talk'', ''Ox-herding Pictures'', and ''Zen Comments on the Mumonkan / Gateless Barrier''. Shibayama made annual visits to the United States in the late 1960s. In 1969 he was accompanied by Fukushima (at that time senior monk at Nanzen-ji and known as Genshō). In 1973 Fukushima received a fellowship to study English at the
Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)—Pomona College, Scr ...
where he conducted seminars on Zen and led ''
zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...
'' practice.


Zen master

Acknowledged as a Zen master in 1974, Fukushima was appointed vice-resident abbot of Hōfuku-ji where he began to train his own disciples. In 1980, he was appointed master of the Tōfuku-ji training monastery (''senmon dōjō'' 専門道場) in Kyoto. He was elected head abbot (''kanchō'' 管長) of Tōfuku-ji in 1991, supervising 363 affiliated temples. After being named Zen master and given the name Keidō, Fukushima strove to carry out his teacher Shibayama’s intention to introduce Rinzai Zen to the West. He accepted Western students as monks, both at Hōfuku-ji and Tōfuku-ji. Counter to tradition, he let women participate in monastic ''
sesshin A ''sesshin'' (接心, or also 摂心/攝心 literally "touching the heart-mind") is a period of intensive meditation (zazen) in a Zen monastery. While the daily routine in the monastery requires the monks to meditate several hours a day, duri ...
''-retreats. He conducted annual speaking tours at American universities including Pomona College, Millsaps College, Hendrix College, Bard College, Columbia University, Bucknell University, Xavier University in Cincinnati, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Kansas, the University of Richmond, Middlebury College and the University of Vermont. From 1991 onwards, these tours included some ''sesshin''-retreats. After decades of contact with American Zen, Fukushima gradually revised his views on it. In October 2007 he wrote: Fukushima also worked to raise awareness and funds to revive and reconstruct several of China's important historical monasteries, thereby aiding
Chán Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and So ...
's emergence from the Cultural Revolution's devastating effects. Jōshū's monastery at Zhao Zhou, now known as Bailin, was the first of these efforts to achieve official government support. On later trips, Fukushima and other priests provided assistance for the rebuilding of Manjuji (萬寿寺) on Mt. Kinzan (径山), of particular importance to the Tōfuku-ji tradition since the founder Enni Ben’en (also known as Shōichi Kokushi) trained there between 1235 and 1241.


Calligraphy

Well known for his calligraphy, Fukushima was an authority on reading classical Chinese and Kanbun (a hybrid Chinese/Japanese script). Although many Buddhist priests produce religiously inspired art, they rarely create their works in front of an audience. Fukushima realized the very act of doing calligraphy could exert educational and inspirational influence upon those who witnessed it. In keeping with Japanese conventions, he did not give calligraphy demonstrations for Japanese audiences, but he did incorporate such events among his overseas teaching activities.


Death

Around 2000, Fukushima began showing symptoms of the onset of Parkinson’s disease, and his health steadily declined. He died on his seventy-eighth birthday (March 1) in 2011.


Teachings, students and Dharma heirs

Throughout his teaching career, Fukushima was clear about what is required to train others using ''
kōan A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen. Etymology The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...
''. Guiding others in this training can be done by those who have finished the entire ''kōan'' curriculum through rigorous training over many years, then matured further on their own. One can only guide someone else in ''kōan'' study when one has gone all the way through it oneself and resolved the One Great Matter. Fukushima authorized one Japanese Dharma heir, Yūdō Harada (also known as Ji'en; current training master at Tōfuku-ji Monastery),'SweepingZen, ''Keido Fukushima, retired Abbot of Tofukuji, dead at age 78''
/ref> and one lay successor, Jeff Shore (Fukushima’s lay disciple since 1982).Jeff Shore, ''being without self''
/ref> Although Fukushima was strict about preserving the traditional practices of Rinzai Zen, he was open to accepting those of other faiths and traditions as his disciples. Among these were Phra Thana Kaokham (a Thai monk of the
Thai Forest Tradition The Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition of Thailand (from pi, kammaṭṭhāna meaning Kammaṭṭhāna, "place of work"), commonly known in the West as the Thai Forest Tradition, is a Parampara, lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism. The ...
), Muho Noelke (current abbot of the
Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān L ...
Zen temple
Antai-ji is a Buddhist temple that belongs to the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. It is located in the town of Shin'onsen, Mikata District, in northern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, where it sits on about 50 hectares of land in the mountains, close to a ...
in Hyōgo, Japan), and Justin Lanier (American Anglican/Episcopal priest). Fukushima permitted Westerners to live in the monastery and train under him at both Hōfuku-ji and Tōfuku-ji. Senior disciples who have done sustained training under Fukushima include Alex Taikei Vesey, Hap Tivey, Tayo Gabler, James Green, Tim Armacost, Ron Sinnige, Alex Buijs, and Sally Stein.


Bibliography


Japanese

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Chinese

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English

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See also

*
Buddhism in Japan Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...
*
List of Rinzai Buddhists {{short description, None Founder *Linji Yixuan A *Ankokuji Ekei * Sōgen Asahina *Ashikaga Yoshimitsu B *Bassui Tokushō * George Bowman C *Sherry Chayat * Chō Tsuratatsu * Chūgan Engetsu *Leonard Cohen D * Watazumi Doso *Ji Gong * Ogino D ...
*
Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States Below is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate. Events Early history * 1893: Soyen Shaku comes to the United States to lecture at the World Parliament of Religions held in C ...


Notes


References


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fukushima, Keido Rinzai Buddhists Zen Buddhist abbots Japanese Zen Buddhists 2011 deaths Zen Buddhist spiritual teachers 1933 births People from Kobe