Dōgen
1200 CE–1253 CE · Kyoto
1200–1253 CE
Dōgen (1200–1253 CE) founded the Sōtō school of Japanese Zen and is among the most original thinkers in Japanese religious history. Born into a Kyoto aristocratic family and trained on Mount Hiei, he traveled to Song China in 1223 and received Dharma transmission in 1227 under the Caodong master Rujing, returning to teach 'just sitting' (shikantaza)—seated meditation undertaken not as a means to awakening but as its very expression. He founded Kōshō-ji near Kyoto and later Eihei-ji in the mountains of Echizen, and composed the philosophically dense Shōbōgenzō. His life and travels are well documented.
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Kyoto
What they did here
DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born into an aristocratic family near Kyoto; trained on Mount Hiei before seeking a more direct path.
About Kyoto
Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years and a principal centre of Japanese Buddhism, home to head temples of many schools. The Sōtō Zen founder Dōgen was born in Kyoto in 1200 and, after returning from China, established his first temple (Kōshō-ji) on its outskirts before moving to Echizen to found Eihei-ji.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Dōgen’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Islamic world
Jewish world
Christian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.