1. Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253)

With Myōzen, he traveled to China in 1224. Remaining there for three years, he accepted transmission from Master Rujing (1163-1228, jap. Nyojō).

On his return, he first remained close to Kyoto, where he established the initially specifically Zen monastery in Japan, Kōshōji. In 1243, Dōgen left Kyoto with his disciples for the province of Echizen (the current Fukui Prefecture) where he build the monastery of Daibutsuji, renamed thereafter Eiheiji, and still one of the two head temples of Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhism. He is the author of any number of works important to the Sōtō school and the Zen world, including the Shōbōgenzō (“Dharma Treasury of the True Eye.”) Dōgen died in 1253.

2. Koun Ejō (1198-1280)

After having given up his role as abbot, Ejō had to finally take it up again after the rather forced departure as abbot of Gikai. Ejō is the author of the “Samâdhi of the Treasury of the Radiant Light” (Kōmyōzō Zanmai, 1278). We also owe to him the “Record of Things Heard from the Shōbōgenzō” (Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki), a compilation of extemporaneous talks by Dōgen, composed at the end of the years 1230, and always regarded as a “readable” introduction to the thought of the Master.

3. Tettsū Gikai (1219-1309)

On his return to Eiheiji, he erected new buildings and introduced new rituals. In 1267, Gikai succeeded Ejō as third abbot, but a conflict emerged with his fellows concerning his duel lineage. Finally, Gikai was forced to depart after five years spent as the head of Eiheiji. He lived many years thereafter with his mother, in a hermitage not far from Eiheiji. Later, he converted a monastery of the Shingon school into a Zen monastery, Daijōji, which was officially opened in 1293.

4. Keizan Jōkin (1264-1325)

Three years after, Keizan succeeded Gikai as abbot of Daijōji. Thereafter, he established the monastery of Yōkōji on the Noto peninsula, where he settled in 1317. This monastery would remain the principal monastery of the immediate disciples of Keizan.

He also established the monastery of Sōjiji in 1324, which would later go on to become, with Dōgen’s Eiheiji, one of the two head temples of the Sōtō school. Keizan is the author of several works, in particular, The Three Kinds of Zen Practitioner” (Sankon Zazen Setsu), “Points to be Observed in Zazen” (Zazen Yōjinki), “The Collection of the Transmission of the Light” (Denkōroku), a series of sermons in the style of the collections of the Chinese lamp, such as “The Pure Rules of Tōkokuji,” better known under the title “The Pure Rules of Keizan” (Keizan Shingi).

5. Gasan Jōseki (1276-1366)

He was later the second abbot of Sōjiji, which he directed over a period of forty years, and was briefly the fourth abbot of Yōkōji. Gasan was the first master in Japan to make study of the dialectical system of the “Five Degrees” (jap. goi) of Chinese Master Dongshan Liangjie (jap. Tōzan Ryōkai, 807-869), founder and namesake of the Sōtō school. Of the six principal disciples of Keizan, only Meihō Sotetsu (1277-1350) and Gasan Jōseki have played a part in determining the later development of the school. Gasan had twenty-five successors, including five that he described as particularly “sensible.”

A famous dialogue between Keizan and Gasan has been preserved. One night, as they contemplated the starry sky. Keizan asked of Gasan: “Do you know that there are two moons?” At that time, Gasan failed to understand. Keizan responded, “If you do not know that there are two moons, you cannot be a bud in the Sōtō line.” Gasan went on to practice most intently. When the time was ripe, Keizan sent him to study with other Masters, in particular with Kyōō Unryō, a Rinzai Master. On Gasan’s return, he replied to Keizan, “We must inherit this mind that is as beautiful as the moon.” Keizan Zenji heard that reply and recognized Gasan Zenji as his successor,“Now you can finally be a bud in the Sōtō line.”

6. Taigen Sōshin (died in 1371)

Taigen accepted Zen transmission from Gasan in the 5th year of the Jōwa era (1349). Immediately after the death of Gasan, Taigen became the 3rd abbot of Sōjiji then, at the end of his life, the 13th abbot of Yōkōji. He also founded the monastery of Butsudaji (in the province of Kaga). Taigen died in the 4th year of the Oan era (1371). His teaching was inspired, like Gasan, by the dialectic of the “Five Degrees.”

7. Baisan Mompon (died in 1417)

In 1382, Baisan became the abbot‐founder (jap. kaisan) of a monastery in the province of Echizen (in the current prefecture of Fukui), in fact an old temple which he renamed Ryūtakuji. He also founded the temple of Kongōji and was the abbot of Butsudaji. Baisan was appointed in 1390 as the eleventh abbot of Sōjiji, and founded in this monastery, with the heirs to Gasan, a system of abbacy rotation. Under this system, abbots of Sōjiji were to be alternatively selected from among the principal lines originating from Gasan. Baisan died in the 24th year of the Ōei era [1417].

Baisan is the subject of various miraculous anecdotes. In one, Baisan is said to have once taken refuge in a deserted house, lost in the countryside, to spend the night there. But the owner of the place returned in the middle of the night, dead drunk, and took the monk for a robber, unsheathed his saber and sliced sharply the intruder. The next morning, the householder awoke and was taken with remorse when he saw, to his great surprise, Baisan calmly seated in meditation. The man exclaimed: “How is this possible?” but Baisan did not answer, being satisfied to remove from his sleeves a small statuette of Kannon which he always carried with him. The statuette was sliced into two. The man prostrated and became – as one might expect – the disciple of Baisan.

Baisan is said to have had a particularly strong devotion to meditation. In the monastic code that he wrote in 1415 for his monastery Ryūtakuji, he enjoined its monks to meditate twenty‐four hours out of twenty‐four, if they did not have anything else to do!