(February 1, 1938 – July 26, 2002)
was an American
Sōtō
Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngsh� ...
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
.
Biography
Otogawa, who preferred to be called by his first name, rather than by either of the Japanese Zen
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
s: ''sensei'' (teacher) or ''roshi'' (master),
came to
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, United States, from Japan in 1967 in response to an invitation from
Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, serving as his assistant at
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is the oldest Japanese Buddhist Sōtō Zen monastery in the United States. It is on the border of the Ventana Wilderness and within the Los Padres National Forest, southeast of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. T ...
until 1970.
Otogawa was the son of a Sōtō Zen priest and was ordained a priest himself at the age of 12. He did undergraduate studies at
Komazawa University and received a master's degree in
Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
Buddhism from
Kyoto University. He then trained for three years at
Eiheiji
250px
is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan (by number of temples in a single legal entity). Eihei-ji is located about east of Fukui in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. In E ...
. Among his primary teachers was the unconventional Zen master
Kodo Sawaki __NOTOC__
Kodo may refer to:
Japan
* ''Kōdō'' (香道), ceremonial appreciation of incense
* Nippon Kodo (日本香堂), an incense company
* Kodō (taiko group) (鼓童), a ''taiko'' drumming group
* Kodo-kai (弘道会), a yakuza criminal o ...
, known as the last of the ''unsui'', or wandering monks, who had refused an invitation to be the head teacher at Eiheiji but instead chose to wander from place to place teaching, never staying in the same place for more than three days.
Originally there were plans for Otogawa to guide a satellite group of the
San Francisco Zen Center located in
Los Altos, California
Los Altos (; Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 census.
Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally ...
, but he was most needed at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (where he stayed until 1970). He moved to Los Altos and began teaching there at the Haiku Zendo shortly after leaving Tassajara, in the late summer of 1970. After Suzuki's death in 1971, Otogawa became the official head of Haiku Zen Center (soon after incorporated under the name Bodhi) in Los Altos, remaining there as teacher until 1978. During this time, he also was integral to the formation of the Santa Cruz Zen Center. He went on to establish another center, Hokoji, in
Arroyo Seco near
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...
, taught regularly at
Naropa University, and returned periodically to Bodhi to lead retreats.
In 1983 Kobun Chino Roshi and a group of students established Jikoji, a rustic mountain retreat center located in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
On March 18, 1991, Otogawa presided over the marriage of
Steve Jobs and
Laurene Powell.
He died in Switzerland on July 26, 2002 by
drowning
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...
while trying to save his five-year-old daughter Maya who had fallen from a dock, who also drowned.
Dharma heirs
Otogawa taught many students over the years in the United States and Europe. His dharma heirs include:
* Carolyn Atkinson (Santa Cruz, California)
*
Angie Boissevain (San Jose, California)
* Ian Forsberg
(Taos, New Mexico)
* Jean Leyshon
(Taos, New Mexico)
* Tim McCarthy (Kent, Ohio)
* Martin Mosko
(Boulder, Colorado)
* Michael Newhall
(Los Gatos, California))
* Vanja Palmers
(Lucerne, Switzerland)
* Bob Watkins
(Taos, New Mexico)
Teaching stories
Ian Forsberg reports:
During a ''shosan'' (a formal public question-and-answer session) Angie Boissevain came before Otogawa with a question that had been burning within her all morning. But after she made the customary three bows and knelt before him she found her mind utterly blank, the question gone. She sat before him in silence for a long time before finally saying: "Where have all the words gone?" "Back where they came from," replied Otogawa.
Shortly after
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, Otogawa was the honored guest at the weekly meeting of the sangha which would become Everyday Dharma Zen Center.
After meditation, Otogawa asked for questions. A visibly distraught young woman asked, "How can I deal with the enormous fear and anger that I feel about what happened?" Otogawa replied, "Do one kind thing for someone every day."
As a master of ''
kyūdō
''Kyūdō'' ( ja, 弓道) is the Japanese martial art of archery. Kyūdō is based on '' kyūjutsu'' ("art of archery"), which originated with the samurai class of feudal Japan. In 1919, the name of kyūjutsu was officially changed to kyūdō, a ...
'' (Japanese archery),
Otogawa was asked to teach a course at the Esalen Institute in
Big Sur, California. The target was set up on a grassy area on the edge of a cliff over the Pacific Ocean. Otogawa took his bow, notched the arrow, took careful aim, and shot. The arrow sailed high over the target, went past the railing, beyond the cliff, only to plunge into the ocean far below. Otogawa looked happily at the shocked students and shouted, "Bull's eye!!"
At a gathering of some of Otogawa's long-term students in Santa Cruz, California, shortly before Otogawa's death, a student asked, "Kobun, why do we sit?" He replied:
Writings
*2002. "Changing the World", "No Thought Required", "New Tricks?" (with
Angie Boissevain), and "Form Is Emptiness" (with Angie Boissevain). In ''One Bird, One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories'', edited by Sean Murphy, 101–106. New York: Renaissance Books .
See also
*
Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States
Below is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate.
Events
Early history
* 1893: Soyen Shaku comes to the United States to lecture at the World Parliament of Religions held in ...
References
External links
Gratefully Remembering Kobun samaHokoji Taos, New Mexico Zendo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otogawa, Kobun Chino
1938 births
2002 deaths
American Buddhist monks
Japanese Zen Buddhists
Komazawa University alumni
Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Zen Center
Soto Zen Buddhists
Zen Buddhist priests
Accidental deaths in Switzerland
Deaths by drowning
20th-century Buddhist monks