Imakita Hongcheon

Japanese: 今北洪川 - いまきた・こうせん

Year of death: January 16, 1892 (Meiji 25)
Year of birth: Bunka 13.7.10 (1816.8.3)
A Rinzai sect monk from the Edo to Meiji periods. His pen names were Kosen, Kyoshu, and Soryuketsu. His given name was Soon. He was the third son of Imakita Zenzo of Fukushima Village, Nishinari County, Settsu Province (Fukushima Ward, Osaka City). His secular name was Shinzaburo. He studied Chinese classics and Confucianism from an early age, but was not satisfied with academic study of letters. He aspired to put into practice, believing that "Mencius preaches nobility, and I will practice nobility," and decided to enter the Zen sect. However, he faced strong opposition from those around him, and although he even had a wife and children at one point, he finally became a monk in 1840, following Daisetsu Shoen of Shokoku-ji Temple. He underwent rigorous training under his teacher, known as Oni Daisetsu, and further studied under Giyama Zenrai of Sogen-ji Temple in Bizen (Okayama Prefecture), and inherited his teachings. In 1858, he was invited to become the chief priest of Eiko-ji Temple in Iwakuni, Suo (Yamaguchi Prefecture), where he restored the temple and, in opposition to the anti-Buddhist ideology, preached the unity and harmony of Confucianism and Buddhism, and later strictly rejected Christianity as a heretical religion. In 1875, he was invited to Tokyo to become the chief teacher of the Rinzai sect's Tokyo Juzan Soko, and was then ordered by the Ministry of Education to become the chief priest of Engaku-ji Temple in Kamakura. Yamaoka Tesshu and others also practiced Zen, and he built the foundations for a new era of Zen that would later flourish under his disciples Shaku Soen and Suzuki Daisetsu. Kosen lived through the turbulent times from the Edo to the Meiji periods, preserving the old traditions while seeking ways to respond to the new society, leading Suzuki Daisetsu to call him "one of the most outstanding modern Zen masters." <Works> "Zenkai Ichiran" and "Souryu Koroku" <References> "Zenrin Sohoden: Continued" by Buntei Obata, "Kinsei Zenrin Gyodokuroku" by Keizo Mori, "Imakita Kosen" by Daisetsu Suzuki

(Kumamoto Hideto)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治25.1.16(1892)
生年：文化13.7.10(1816.8.3)
江戸から明治期にかけての臨済宗の僧。号は洪川,虚舟,蒼竜窟。諱は宗温。摂津国西成郡福島村(大阪市福島区)の今北善蔵の3男。俗名新三郎。幼少より漢学,儒学を学んだが,文字の上の学問にあきたらず,「孟子は浩然を説き,我は浩然を行う」と,実践を志し,禅門に入ることを決意した。しかし,周囲の猛反対にあい,一時は妻子までもうけたものの,ついに,天保11(1840)年,相国寺の大拙承演に就いて出家。鬼大拙と呼ばれた師のもとで厳しい修行に励み,さらに,備前(岡山県)曹源寺の儀山善来に学び,その法を嗣いだ。安政5(1858)年,周防(山口県)岩国の永興寺の住職に招かれ,寺を復興するとともに,廃仏思想への対抗として,儒仏の一致調和を説き,さらにのちには,キリスト教を邪教として厳しく排斥している。明治8(1875)年,東京に招かれて臨済宗東京十山総黌大教師となり,さらに,教部省の命により,鎌倉円覚寺の住職となった。山岡鉄舟らも参禅し,のちに弟子の釈宗演や鈴木大拙らによって花開く新しい時代の禅の基礎を築いた。江戸から明治にかけて,激動の時代を生き抜いた洪川は,旧を守りながらも新しい社会への対応を模索し,鈴木大拙をして「近代禅匠のもっとも傑出したものの一人」といわしめている。<著作>『禅海一瀾』『蒼竜広録』<参考文献>小畠文鼎『続禅林僧宝伝』,森慶造『近世禅林言行録』,鈴木大拙『今北洪川』

(熊本英人)

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