Bankei Yōtaku
1622 CE–1693 CE · Modern · Hamada (Aboshi, Himeji), Harima
1622–1693 CE
Bankei Yōtaku (1622–1693 CE) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master of the early Edo period, celebrated for teaching in plain, everyday language to large audiences of laypeople as well as monks. He centered his teaching on what he called the 'Unborn' (fushō) buddha-mind—the innately awake mind already present in everyone—and discouraged reliance on artificial techniques or imported formulas. Long somewhat overshadowed in his own school, he was rediscovered in the twentieth century as one of the most original voices of Japanese Zen. His life and dates are well documented.
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Hamada (Aboshi, Himeji), Harima
What they did here
Born in a village on the Inland Sea coast of Harima province (modern Hyōgo) into a family of samurai-rank physicians.
About Hamada (Aboshi, Himeji), Harima
Hamada, in the Aboshi area of modern Himeji in Hyōgo Prefecture (the old province of Harima), Japan, was the birthplace, in 1622, of Bankei Yōtaku, the Rinzai Zen master celebrated for his accessible teaching of the 'Unborn' (fushō).
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The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Bankei Yōtaku’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
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