Rinzai School - Contemporary Rinzai-schools

Contemporary Rinzai-schools

Rinzai Zen in Japan today is not a single organized body. Rather, it is divided into 14 branches (or 15, if the Ōbaku is included), referred to by the names of their head temples, of which half are based in Kyoto (7, plus Ōbaku). The largest and most influential of these is the Myōshin-ji branch, whose head temple was founded in 1342 by Kanzan Egen Zenji (1277–1360). Other major branches include Nanzen-ji and Tenryū-ji (both founded by Musō Soseki), Daitoku-ji (founded by Shūhō Myōchō), and Tōfuku-ji (founded by Enni Ben'en, 1202–1280). These branches are purely organizational divisions arising from temple history and teacher-student lineage, and do not represent sectarian divide or difference in fundamental practice, though details do differ – for example, the Myōshin-ji school tailors kōan to particular students, rather than sticking to the traditional canon.

These head temples preside over various networks, comprising a total of approximately six thousand temples, forty monasteries, and one nunnery. The Myōshin-ji school is by far the largest, approximately as big as the other branches combined: it contains within it about three thousand five hundred temples and nineteen monasteries.