Lineage of Sanshin Zen Community

Lineage refers to the line of succession of teachers from Shakyamuni Buddha to the present day.  Although it extends before Shakyamuni Buddha, generally succession is reckoned forward from his life.  Sanshin Zen Community's founding teacher's lineage extends from Shakyamuni Buddha through the early teachers in India...
Bodhidharma in China...the Chinese teachers...Dogen Zenji and successive teachers to Kodo Sawaki Roshi...Kosho Uchiyama Roshi...Shohaku Okumura Sensei...

Kodo Sawaki Roshi  (June 16, 1880-Dec. 21, 1965)

Kodo Sawaki Roshi has been described as, "like an ancient Zen master: fearless and unconventional," by his disciple Uchiyama Roshi.  By age 7, both his parents had died, an uncle who adopted him had also died and he was adopted by a professional gambler.  At age 16, he went to Eiheiji aspiring to become a monk.  The next year he was ordained by Koho Sawada, abbot of Soshinji, and given the name, "Kodo."  Every few years he moved to a new place, studying with various teachers.  In 1923, he begins travelling around Japan giving lectures and leading sesshins (retreats).  He becomes a professor of Zen literature at Komazawa University in 1935 and teaches there until 1963.  He established Antaiji Shichikurin Sanzen Dojo in 1949 and died there in 1965.

 Kosho Uchiyama Roshi  (1912-March 13, 1998)

Kosho Uchiyama Roshi is one of the most highly respected modern Japanese Zen Masters.  In 1912, he was born in Tokyo, Japan.  He received a Master's Degree in Western philosophy from Waseda University in 1937 and was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1941 under Kodo Sawaki Roshi.   Upon Sawaki Roshi's death in 1965, Uchiyama Roshi became the abbot of Antaiji, a monastery and temple then located near Kyoto, Japan.  In 1975, he retired from Antaiji and lived with his wife at Noke-in, a small temple outside Kyoto until his death on March 13, 1998.

Shohaku Okumura (June 22, 1948- )

Shohaku Okumura was born in Osaka, Japan.  He studied Zen Buddhism at Komazawa University in Tokyo.  Ordained as a Soto Zen priest by Uchiyama Roshi in 1970, he practiced with him until 1975, when he came to the United States.  He practiced at the Pioneer Valley Zendo in Massachusetts from 1975 to 1981.  He returned to Japan, where he began translating Dogen Zenji's and Uchiyama Roshi's writings into English.  Okumura Sensei was a teacher at the Kyoto Soto Zen Center and later at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He has led sesshins and Dharma study groups around the United States.   In addition to being founder and head teacher of Sanshin Zen Community, Okumura Sensei is the Director of the Soto Zen Education Center in San Francisco, California.