Gotō Zuigan

Zuigan was influential in the development of Buddhism in America in the early 20th century. He was a student of the Zen master Tetsuo Sōkatsu and followed him to California in 1906 with a group of fourteen who went to the US with Tetsuo Sōkatsu in 1906, attempting strawberry farming in Hayward, California, and founding a branch of Ryomo Kyokai on Sutter Street in San Francisco.[5][note 3]

Zuigan returned to Japan in 1910. In 1916 Sōkatsu bestowed upon him the Inka Shōmei.[note 4] He then spent fifteen years as a missionary in Seoul.[3]

Later, he returned to Japan and taught at the temple Daitoku-ji in Kyoto.[3]

Among Zuigan's notable students were:

• The American religious scholar Huston Smith who studied with Zuigan for fifteen years.[6]
• Pianist Walter Nowick who studied with Zuigan at Daitoku-ji beginning in 1950 until Zuigan's death in 1965.
• Sōkō Morinaga, Nowick's Dharma brother, who wrote in "Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity", who was also a head of Hanazono University.[7][note 5]
• The Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering who lived a year and a half in Daitoku-Ji with Nowick under Zuigan's successor Oda Sessō, and described this period of study in the book, "The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery."[9]

• Oda Sessō[10][11][12][13]
• Sōkō Morinaga[10][11][12][13]

• Buddhism in Japan
• List of Rinzai Buddhists