ABSTRACT
According to Zen tradition, the rise of Zen in Japan is purely a family affair. It represents the inheritance of the treasury of the essence of true Buddhism (shōbō genzō) from the lineage of its Chinese patriarchs by their chosen successors in Japan. This inheritance took place during Japan's Kamakura period (1185–1333), when Japanese monks made pilgrimages to the mainland Chan patriarchs, and Chinese Chan missionaries from the Song and Yuan brought their teachings to the islands. At the time, the Chan family was distributed into two major houses, the Linji and Caodong; hence, the Japanese Zen school was similarly divided into Rinzai and Sōtō according to the house affiliation of its founding patriarchs. To Eisai (1141–1215) goes the honour of founding the former; to Dōgen (1200–1253), the latter. Others would follow, bringing various lineages within these two houses, but the event was always the same: a direct transmission of the essence of Buddhism from the mind of the Chinese master to the mind of the Japanese student. The master spoke of chan, the student of zen, but since they shared the same essence beyond words, there was no difference between them.
