Meishū 明秀 (dates uncertain; fl. probably late-Muromachi to early-Edo, late 15th–16th c.), Jōdoshū monk of the Chinzei branch, identified by his self-attribution as shamon of Nankii Sōji-ji 南紀總持寺沙門 — i.e. of Sōji-ji 總持寺, the Chinzei-line monastery in Kii 紀伊 (Nankii) province (modern Wakayama prefecture). Author of KR6t0350 Gu-yō-shō 愚要鈔 — a three-fascicle vernacular-Japanese catechetical compendium of Chinzei Pure-Land doctrine in question-and-answer form, esteemed within the school for its “plain words and deep meaning” (文字平易。意味深長 monji heii ihi shinchō).
Meishū is identified by the 1819 printer’s preface as the kaisan-daiwajō shin-sen — “the founder-great-master, [true] author” — of the Sōji-ji line, indicating that he is regarded as the founder (開山) or principal patriarch of the local Sōji-ji teaching tradition. The work’s transmission-record preserves multiple medieval-to-early-modern copying-dates: Tenbun 10 / 1541 at Yoshimine-Zendō-ji 義談所 in Kōzuke (Shimo-Tsuke); Tenshō 8 / 1580 at Jōnen-ji 常念寺 in Ichinomiya by Bhikṣu Kūshiki Shōchū 空識正忠; Tenshō 18 / 1590 at Sōji-ji; Kanbun 6 / 1666; Hōei 4 / 1707; Bunsei kibō / 1819 (re-engraved). These transmissions establish that the Gu-yō-shō was actively circulated and copied within the Chinzei-line monastic network from the early-16th century onward.
Beyond his authorship of Gu-yō-shō and his foundational role at Sōji-ji, Meishū is otherwise unattested in the standard Pure-Land historiographical sources, and his precise dates cannot be determined from currently-available evidence.