Koryū Osaka


Koryū Osaka, birthname Koryū Matsumoto, was a Japanese lay Zen-teacher who taught Taizan Maezumi the Inzan koan-curriculum.

Biography

Musa Koryū Osaka was born in 1901 as Koryū Matsumoto, but received the name Osaka when he was adopted into a family without a son. He attended Tokyo University, graduating with a major in Indian philosophy, and studied the Rinzai koan-curriculum with Muso Joko Roshi, a Shingon priest who studied the koans with another Shingon priest, Muchaku Kaiko Roshi ; Kaiko in turn studied koans with Kazan Genku, a Rinzai Zen-priest of the Myoshin-ji branch of Rinzai Zen. Muso Joko established the Fuji Hannya Dojo and the Tokyo Hannya Dojo, which was led by Koryū Osaka in the 1930s, before he was drafted into the military, and then again after the war.

Lineage

Koryū Osaka was trained in the Inzan koan-curriculum, which traces it's lineages to Hakuin Ekaku. Inzan Ien was a dharma-successor of Gasan Jitō, who received Inka from Tōrei Enji dharma heirs. Gasan received Dharma transmission from Rinzai teacher Gessen Zen'e, who had received dharma transmission from Kogetsu Zenzai, before meeting Hakuin. While Gasan is considered to be a dharma heir of Hakuin, "he did not belong to the close circle of disciples and was probably not even one of Hakuin's dharma heirs," studying with Hakuin but completing his koan-training with Tōrei Enji. Koryū Osaka's koan-study lineage can be constructed as follows: