Soen Nakagawa

Nakagawa, Soen
Print Articlesuccessor, Roko Sherry Chayat). Nakagawa was also an important figure in the formative years of several other American Zen teachers, including the late Robert Aitken roshi of the Honolulu Diamond Sanghaand the independent Zen teacher, Philip Kapleau. He is remembered for his many eccentricities, such as the time he performed the Japanese tea ceremony with distinguished guests using Coca-Cola cans.


Soen Nakagawa (中川 宋淵; ☸ March 19, 1907—March 11, 1984) was a Rinzai Zen roshi and poet, the predecessor to two influential Zen teachers in the West, Maurine Stuart roshi and Eido Tai Shimano, the now retired abbot of the Zen Studies Society (now run by Shimano’s

Nakagawa was a Dharma successor of Keigaku Katsube and served as head abbot of Ryutaku-ji. In his retirement he resided on the temple grounds where people would report hearing classical music drifting from his little hut during all hours of the day and night. Classical music was an art form which Soen loved dearly. Nakagawa’s Zen lineage continues today through Eido Shimano’s Dharma successors, including Roko Sherry Chayat and Genjo Marinello, Osho, and others like Jun Po Denis Kelly, founder of Mondo Zen. His is one of the only Western Rinzai Zen lineages that continues to be passed down over generations, on into modern-day.

In 2010 Nakagawa’s lineage found itself in turmoil following public allegations and disclosures on how Nakagawa roshi’s primary successor teaching here in the United States, Eido Tai Shimano, had misused his position of authority and had engaged in harmful sexual misconduct over the many years he was teaching. This caused many prominent Zen teachers within America’s Zen community to write letters to the board of directors of the Zen Studies Society, expressing their displeasure and calling for a complete removal of Shimano from any position of teaching authority at any of the Zen Studies Society training locations. Eventually, the board of directors did decide to separate itself from the former roshi and one of Shimano’s Dharma successors, Roko Sherry Chayat, took over as head abbot.

Photo © Adam Genkaku Fisher

Biography
Soen Nakagawa was born Motoi Nakagawa on March 19, 1907 in Iwakuni, Japan. He was the eldest of three brothers and his father was a medical officer in the army. The Nakagawa family frequently moved in his childhood, with Soen having lived in both Iwakuni and Hiroshima. Nakagawa’s father died during his youth and his mother never remarried, so the family struggled to survive. Eventually Soen was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied Japanese literature. He held a love and fascination for poetry, reading the works of Basho.

Influenced by his love for Basho, Nakagawa was ordained an unsui in 1931 by Katsube Keigaku roshi of Kogaku-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple. Much of his time was spent in personal retreat on Daibosatsu Mountain, located in Yamanashi Prefecture. Soon, some of his poetry started getting published in a Japanese magazine calledFujin Koron (or, “Woman’s Review”), a publication which Nyogen Senzaki read. Impressed by Nakagawa’s poetry, in 1934 Senzaki initiated a correspondence with Nakagawa and these formed the foundations of a lifelong friendship shared between the two.

It was around this time that he met Ryutaku-ji’s abbot, Gempo Yamamoto. Soen continued having his poems published in other publications and soon after became a formal student of Gempo Yamamoto roshi. This was followed by an apparent two-year retreat spent on Daibosatsu Mountain, which was followed by his return to Ryutaku-ji to resume formal Zen studies. In 1950 he took over abbotship of Ryutaku-ji.

Nyogen Senzaki roshi, over the years of their friendship, would sometimes mention that Nakagawa should come to the United States and teach. Nakagawa had planned to make his first visit in 1941, a visit which never happened due to complications arising out of World War II.

So it was that it wasn’t until 1949 that Nakagawa made his first trip to the United States, greeted by Senzaki roshi, who arranged for him to give a talk at the Los Angeles Theosophical Society. In 1950 Soen Nakagawa returned to Ryutaku-ji in Japan and, not long after, a young Robert Aitken arrived there (upon the suggestion of Senzaki roshi) to begin studying under him. Philip Kapleau, the independent Zen teacher, arrived in the next year to also train with him. In all he made thirteen trips to the United States in his lifetime, leading intensive meditation retreats and spending time with students.

In 1960 Nakagawa roshi sent a young monk by the name of Eido Shimano to Hawaii to assist Robert Aitken in running the Honolulu Diamond Sangha. Soon after, Aitken reports that Shimano’s presence in the sangha broke the group off into factions. During this time, two of Aitken’s female sangha members were hospitalized and it was later documented by Aitken that these hospitalizations were allegedly the result of sexual encounters they’d had with Eido Shimano.

Teaching Style

Dharma Successors
Nakagawa roshi given Dharma transmission to several individuals, one of which was done informally withMaurine Stuart roshi – an important woman who factors greatly into the advancement of women within the Western Zen mahasangha. Therefore, I’ve decided to include her name in the following list of Soen Nakagawa roshi’s Dharma successors:

Eido Tai Shimano, Maurine Stuart, Suzuki Sochu, Fujimori Kozen of Hokko-ji, Immari Beijo and Nakagawa Dokyu.

See Also

References

Zen Master Who? A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen by James Ishmael Ford

Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa by Roko Sherry Chayat

Endless Vow is the first English-language collection of the literary works of Soen Nakagawa Roshi. An intimate, in-depth portrait of the master of Eido Tai Shimano, his Dharma heir, introduces the poems, letters, journal entries, and other writings of Soen Roshi, which are illustrated with his calligraphies. In a postscript, some of his best-known American students—including Peter Matthiessen and Ruth McCandless—reminisce about this legendary figure of American Buddhist history.

also:
Shimano, Eido Tai
Mortensen, Denko John
Nakagawa, Kyudo
Chayat, Roko Shinge Sherry
Afable, Jiro Andy
Aitken, Anne Tanshin Hopkins
Zenrin Chido
Dae Gak Robert Genthner
Kelly, Jun Po Denis





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