Priest Gekkō Shōin

Biography:

A Chinese Buddhist priest from the Gen era (1271-1368). He was the successor of Priest Gugoku Chikei and is known as the younger brother of Priest Seisetsu Shōchō. He came to Japan in 1326, when he was fifty-three years old, and was staying in Kenchō-ji temple with the support by Regent Hōjō Takatoki. Later on, Shōin was staying in Kennin-ji and Nanzen-ji temples. He edited a book on precepts of Zen Buddhism, the Daikan Seiki, which suited the Japanese way of living, and contributed to the development of Japanese Zen Buddhism.