Eisai

Eisai or Yōsai (1141–1215). A Tendai monk who established the Rinzai Zen Buddhist school in Japan. He began his career at Mount Hiei, studying Tendai esotericism, but went to China in 1168. He returned to Japan in 1191 and built the first Rinzai Zen temple, Shōfukuji. In spite of the strong opposition from Mount Hiei against the establishment of Zen, he was successful in founding Kenninji (monastery) in Kyōto and Jufukuji in Kamakura. His polemical work, Kōzen gokoku ron (Dissemination of Zen for the Defence of the Nation), argues for the need of an independent Zen school, although he himself taught a synthesis of Tendai, esotericism, and Zen. He is also famous for introducing the cultivation of tea (see CHADŌ) to Japan and writing the first book on the merits of tea drinking, Kissa yōjōki. He instructed Dōgen, and for that reason, although his own lineage died out, he is often regarded as the founding figure of Zen in Japan. He was given the posthumous title of Senkō Kokushi.