Tsūgen Jakurei 通幻寂靈 (Genkō 2 → 1322; Meitoku 2 / Genchū 8 / 1391-09-22), Late-Nanbokuchō Japanese Sōtō-Zen master, fourth-generation patriarch in the 紹瑾 Keizan / 峨山 Gasan line of Sōji-ji 總持寺. Style-name (字) Tsūgen 通幻 (“Penetrating-Phantom”); dharma-name Jakurei 寂靈. Posthumous title Tsūgen Reisai-Zenji 通幻靈裁禪師 with later additions. Native of Kyō 京 (the capital, modern Kyoto).
Tonsured under 峨山 Gasan Jōseki 峨山韶碩 (1276–1366) at Sōji-ji 總持寺 in Noto; received Gasan’s transmission as one of his Five Disciples (峨山五哲 Gasan no goteki) — the senior cohort of fourth-generation Sōji-ji-line abbots through whom the entire later Sōtō-Zen system descends. Tsūgen is the first of the goteki in seniority, the founder of the Tsūgen-ha 通幻派, the dominant Sōji-ji sub-lineage in late-medieval Japan.
Founder-abbot (開山) of:
- Yōshin-ji 永心寺 in Echizen,
- Yōshō-ji 永祥寺 in Tango,
- Hōzō-ji 寶藏寺 in Tajima,
- Yōkō-ji 永光寺 (Keizan’s foundation in Noto, restored after fire),
- and notably Sōji-ji 諸嶽山總持寺 itself in Noto, where he was abbot in his late career.
His recorded sayings circulate as the Tsūgen Rei-zenji manroku 通幻靈禪師漫録 (the present text KR6t0298), edited two and a half centuries later from “manuscript copies half-rotted by rain” (per the editor’s preface) by Geppa Dōin 月坡道印 and printed in Enpō 3 / 1675.
The Tsūgen-ha sub-lineage that descends from him became the dominant Sōji-ji-line trunk, and the modern Sōtō-school’s two head-temples — Eihei-ji (Eihei tradition through Gi’un) and Sōji-ji (Sōji tradition through Tsūgen and his peers) — represent two distinct fourth-generation lineages from Dōgen and Keizan respectively.