Gentō Sokuchū () was a

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the ...

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

priest and the 50th abbot of

Eihei-ji file:Plan Eihei-ji.svg, 250px is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan (by number of temples in a single legal entity). The other is Sōji-ji in Yokohama. Eihei-ji is loc ...

, the school's head temple. He was part of a 17th and 18th century movement within the Sōtō school that sought to bring the school's teachings back in line with those of the 13th century founding teacher,

Dōgen was a Japanese people, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Buddhist Bhikkhu, monk, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He is also known as Dōgen Kigen (), Eihei Dōgen (), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (), and Busshō Dent� ...

.Foulk, p. 56 To this end, he edited major editions of works by Dōgen and succeeded in disseminating them widely. He is best remembered for compiling the ''Eihei Rules of Purity'' (''Eihei Shingi''), a collection of writings by Dōgen laying out a strict code of conduct for monks. These rules had been largely unheeded in the school in the preceding several centuries, and Gentō used his high position as abbot of

to reintroduce and enforce them. His work on the ''Eihei Rules of Purity'' was completed in 1794 while he was serving as the eleventh abbot of Entsū-ji.Heine, p. 245 The following year he became the 50th abbot of Eihei-ji. He was also involved in editing Dōgen's master work, the ''

Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th-century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...

''.Leighton, p. 22 In addition to his efforts on monastic rules, he also sought to remove what he perceived to be non-Sōtō elements within the school. He de-emphasized the use of

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 ...

s due to their apparent historical association with the competing

Rinzai 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 of ...

school. In 1796 he also had the sangha hall (''sōdō'', 僧堂) at Eihei-ji rebuilt in imitation of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

structures that Dōgen had described.Foulk, p. 57 The previous building, dating from only fifty years earlier, was built in a

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

style based on temples of the recently introduced Ōbaku school. Gentō's former student at Entsū-ji was the famous wandering monk Ryōkan. The Buddhist scholar Michel Mohr suggests that Gentō's fanaticism for 'purifying' the Sōtō school probably informed Ryōkan's decision to become an itinerant monk without an association to any temple.

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