Tōrei Enji 東嶺圓慈 (Kyōhō 6 / 1721-02-22 → Kansei 4 / 1792-04-05), Edo-period Japanese Rinzai-Zen master and the principal dharma-heir of 慧鶴 Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769). Style-name (字) Tōrei 東嶺 (“Eastern Peak”); dharma-name Enji 圓慈; self-deprecating sobriquet Fufu Rōjin 不不老人 (“Not-Not Old Man”). Native of Kanzaki 神崎 in Ōmi 近江 province (modern Shiga).
Tonsured young at age 9 under Setsuō Hōchō 雪夫法忠; entered Hakuin’s training at Shōin-ji 松蔭寺 aged 23 (1743) and received transmission. Founder (開山) of Ryūtaku-ji 龍澤寺 at Mishima 三嶋 in 1761 — the principal training-temple of the Hakuin lineage — and abbot of Engaku-ji 圓覺寺 in Kamakura. Tōrei is regarded by all modern Rinzai sub-schools (with the partial exception of those tracing through Gasan Jitō’s Enpuku-ji branch) as the principal architect of the post-Hakuin kōan curriculum in its institutional form.
Major works:
- Shūmon mujintō-ron 宗門無盡燈論 (“Treatise on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Lineage”), the present text KR6t0281, a systematic ten-chapter exposition of the Hakuin curriculum.
- Goke sanshō yōro-mon 五家參詳要路門 (“Gates of the Essential Roads of the Five Houses Examined”, KR6t0282), composed 1788 — comparative treatise on the Five Houses of Chan.
- Komon hōgo 古文法語 (Old-Style Dharma-Talks).
- Bōji ron 棒喝論 (“Treatise on Sticks and Shouts”).
- Hōgyō hōkan 寳鏡寳鑑 (“Treasure-Mirror Treasure-Mirror”) — extensive commentary on Caodong-school Five-Ranks doctrine.
- Numerous individual fa-yǔ and verses, gathered posthumously.
Tōrei is one of the most theoretically systematic Zen authors in pre-modern Japan: his works combine Hakuin’s experiential idiom with a strong scholastic command of Sòng kōan literature, and they remain the principal pedagogical foundation texts of modern Rinzai-Zen monastic education.