Nampo Jomyo

Nampo Jomyo, also Enzu Daiō and Daiō Kokushi (1235 – February 9, 1309) was a Japanese monk, who founded the Ōtōkan lineage of the Rinzai school of Zen (a form of Japanese Buddhism).

Quotes

• My coming today is coming from no where. One year hence, my departing will be departing to no where.
  • Attributed to Nampo Jomyo in: Richard Bryan McDaniel.Zen Masters of Japan. The Second Step East. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2013.

• This year, the twenty-ninth of the twelfth
  No longer has a place to come to.
  The twenty-ninth of the twelfth next year
  Already has no place to go.
  • Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6

• To hell with the wind!
  Confound the rain!
  I recognize no Buddha.
  A blow like the stroke of lightning -
  A world turns on its hinge.
  • Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6
  • Other translation:
    I rebuke the wind and revile the rain,
    I do not know the Buddha and patriarchs;
    My single activity turns in the twinkling of an eye,
    Swifter even than a lightning flash.
    • Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Dust, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World p. 206; cited in Richard Bryan McDaniel (2013)

Quotes about Nampo Jomyo

• Nampo Jomyo was another who traveled to China to deepen his understanding of Zen. He was the nephew of Enni Ben’nen and became a monk at the age of 15. Three years later, at 18, he sought out the Chinese master Rankei Doryu [Lanxi Daolong] who had come to Japan to establish Kenchoji as a Rinzai temple in Kamakura. After a time with Rankei, Jomyo went to China to continue studying with Kido Chigu [Xutang Zhiyu], Rankei’s Dharma brother.
  • Richard Bryan McDaniel. Zen Masters of Japan. The Second Step East. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2013. Article "Nampo Jomyo."

• In 1265, Jomyo achieved enlightenment and was recognized as an heir by Kido. Kido was so impressed by the young Japanese’s attainment that when the time came for him to return to his home country, Kido wrote this valedictory poem predicting the success he would find in Japan:

To knock on the door and search with care,

To walk broad streets and search the more:

Old [Kido] taught so clear and bright,

And many are the grandchildren on the eastern sea who received [this teaching].

(Dumoulin, Heinrich. Zen Buddhism: A History – Japan, p. 39.)

Upon his return to Japan, Jomyo spent some time with his former teacher, Rankei, before moving to the southern island of Kyushu, where he was appointed abbot of Kotokuji and later of Sofukuji, where he taught for thirty years.

• Richard Bryan McDaniel. Zen Masters of Japan. The Second Step East. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2013. Article "Nampo Jomyo."

External links

• Nanpo Jōmyō (1235–1308) posthumous name Enzu Daiō, usually simply Daiō Kokushi