Koun Ejō 孤雲懷奘 (Kennin 8 → 1198; Kōan 3 / 1280-09-21), early-Kamakura Japanese Sōtō-Zen master, principal dharma-heir of 道元 Dōgen (1200–1253) and second-generation patriarch (二祖) of the Sōtō school at Eihei-ji 永平寺. Style-name (字) Koun 孤雲 (“Lone Cloud”); dharma-name Ejō 懷奘. Native of Echizen 越前 province.
Initially trained in the Tendai-school at Hiei-zan 比叡山, then under Bucchi Kakuan 佛地覺晏 (founder of the Daruma-shū 達磨宗, the proto-Zen lineage) at Tōnomine 多武峯 in Yamato. Met Dōgen at Kennin-ji 建仁寺 in Kyoto in Antei 2 / 1228 (after Dōgen’s return from Sòng China) and became Dōgen’s principal disciple and jisha 侍者 in Tenpuku 2 / 1234. Followed Dōgen from Kōshō-ji 興聖寺 to Echizen and the founding of Eihei-ji 永平寺 in 1244. After Dōgen’s death (1253) Ejō served as the second abbot of Eihei-ji (1253–1267, with intermissions when he transferred the abbacy to 徹通 Tettsū Gikai), retiring to write before his own death. He is the principal compiler of Dōgen’s recorded sayings (the Eihei kōroku 永平広録 — large parts of which Ejō transcribed during Dōgen’s lifetime), and the author of:
- The Shōbōgenzō zuimon-ki 正法眼藏隨聞記 — Ejō’s faithful record of Dōgen’s casual teaching at Kōshō-ji and Eihei-ji, one of the most important sources for Dōgen’s everyday teaching.
- The Kōmyōzō zanmai 光明藏三昧 (“Samādhi of the Treasury of Light”), the present text KR6t0296 — a fa-yǔ on the zanmai doctrine derived from Dōgen’s teaching.
Together with Dōgen and 徹通 Gikai he is one of the three founder-patriarchs of Japanese Sōtō, and his role as transmission-conduit makes him perhaps the single most consequential figure in the institutional formation of Sōtō-Zen.