Gasan Jitō was a Zen master in the Japanese

Rinzai school The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school, Linji s ...

. He received

Dharma transmission In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' ('' kechimyaku'') theoretically traced back to the Buddha him ...

from Rinzai teacher Gessen Zen'e, before meeting

Hakuin was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism, who regarded bodhicitta, working for the benefit of others, as the ultimate concern of Zen-training. While never having received formal dharma transmission, he is regarded as t ...

. Deeply impressed, he started

koan A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhist practice in different ways. The main goal of practice in Z ...

-study with Hakuin, completing it under Tōrei Enji tutelage. Gasan is considered to be a

dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

heir of

, though "he did not belong to the close circle of disciples and was probably not even one of Hakuin's dharma heirs." After completing his training, Gasan Jitō moved to Rinsho-in, a small temple in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

where he had more than five-hundred students. He and/or his students Inzan Ien and Takuju Kosen created the contemporary Rinzai koan-curriculum out of the "raw koan system" inherited from Gasan.

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* * * Japanese Zen Buddhists Zen Buddhist spiritual teachers Year of birth missing Rinzai Buddhists {{Zen-bio-stub