Bassui Tokushō 拔隊得勝 (1327–1387) — Late-Nanbokuchō Japanese Rinzai-Zen master, posthumous imperial title Ekō Daien Zenji 慧光大圓禪師 (“Wisdom-Light Great-Perfect Zen Master”). Sobriquet Bassui 拔隊 (“Standing-Out from the Crowd”); his hermitage and final residence was Enzan 鹽山 (the “Salt-Mountain”) in Kai Province (modern Yamanashi).
Born 1327 in Sagami Province (modern Kanagawa). Took the tonsure relatively late, after years of itinerant spiritual practice; received Línjì-school transmission from Kōzan Mongo 孤峯覺明 (1271–1361), a Daikaku-ha master in the Kōhō Kennichi / Musō line.
Bassui’s distinctive teaching emphasized the kōan of “who is hearing?” (kikō wa taga naru) — turning the practitioner’s introspection toward the cognitive subject of perception rather than the perceived object. His approach was austere and rigorous, emphasizing solitary meditation and direct self-inquiry; he refused to head established monasteries, preferring his hermitage. His most influential disciples carried his teaching through the Nanbokuchō and into the early-Muromachi monastic system.
His Recorded Sayings — Enzan Bassui Oshō goroku 鹽山拔隊和尙語錄 (KR6t0264, T80n2558) — six fascicles, were compiled by his disciples. Death date: between 1387 January 28 and 1388 February 15 per Giyū-ji-roku 疑年錄 p. 341.
Source: standard Japanese Rinzai-Zen biographical sources; Giyū-ji-roku p. 341; Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, vol. 2: Japan, pp. 196–199; Braverman, Arthur (trans.), Mud and Water: A Collection of Talks by the Zen Master Bassui, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002.