Mokuan Shōtō 木菴性瑫 (Wànlì 39 / 1611-03-13 → Tenna 4 / 1684-02-20), Late-Ming Chinese LínjìYángqí school Chan master and the second-generation patriarch of the Japanese Ōbaku 黄檗 school after his master 隆琦 Ingen Ryūki (Yǐnyuán Lóngqí, 1592–1673). Style-name (字) Mokuan 木菴 (“Wood-Hermitage”); dharma-name Shōtō 性瑫. Posthumous Japanese title Emyō Kokushi 慧明國師, conferred in 1693. Native of Quánzhōu 泉州 in Fújiàn.
Tonsured under 隆琦 Yǐnyuán Lóngqí at Huángbò Wànfúsì 黃檗山萬福寺 in Fújiàn; received Yǐnyuán’s transmission. When Yǐnyuán crossed to Japan at the invitation of the Nagasaki Kōfuku-ji community in 1654, Mokuan was a senior monk in his entourage; he followed and remained in Japan, succeeding Yǐnyuán as second abbot of the Manpuku-ji 萬福寺 at Mount Ōbaku-zan 黃檗山 in Uji 宇治 (south of Kyoto, founded by Yǐnyuán in 1661) on the latter’s retirement. Founder-abbot of Shōzan-an 象山菴 in Settsu 攝津.
As editor and compiler:
- Editor of KR6t0311 Fushō Kokushi yǔlù 普照國師語録 — the recorded sayings of Yǐnyuán Lóngqí.
- Editor of KR6t0313 Ōbaku shingi 黄檗清規 — Yǐnyuán’s monastic rules for the Ōbaku temples in Japan, with Mokuan as principal kanshu (校).
His own recorded sayings, the Mokuan Oshō goroku 木菴和尚語録 (preserved separately, not in this batch), document his Ōbaku abbacy. The Mokuan-line sub-lineage of the Japanese Ōbaku school descends from him and remains the principal Ōbaku branch into the modern era. Together with Yǐnyuán, Mokuan is one of the two principal transitional Sino-Japanese Buddhist figures of the seventeenth century.