Haku'un Yasutani

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Haku'un Yasutani (1885 - 1973) was the first abbot of the Zen Buddhist lineage of Sanbo Kyodan. He was born in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan and ordained as a Zen monk at a Soto temple at the age of 13. He began training in 1925 under Harada Daiun Sogaku, who studied under both Soto and Rinzai masters, and from whom he received Dharma transmission and inka.

At this time in Japan Soto Zen practice had become rather methodical and ritualistic, and Yasutani felt that practice was lacking. Yasutani broke away from the Soto sect and started his own lineage (the Sanbo Kyodan). The Sanbo Kyodan incorporates Rinzai methods (koan work) as well as much of Soto tradition, a style Yasutani had learned from his teacher Harada Daiun Sogaku.