Dōgen leaves Japan with his teacher Myōzen to study Chán (Zen) in Song-dynasty China, the journey that would shape his later teaching and institutional program in Japan.
After returning to Tiantong Monastery in early 1225, Dōgen meets the abbot Tiantong Rujing, who becomes his decisive teacher and reference point for “just sitting” (shikantaza) practice.
Myōzen dies in China, and Dōgen continues intensive training under Rujing; Dōgen later records teachings and encounters from this period (e.g., in Hōkyōki), grounding his authority for establishing a Japanese Zen lineage.
Dōgen returns to Japan after his Song training, bringing a distinctive approach to Zen centered on zazen practice and monastic discipline that would become associated with Sōtō Zen.
Dōgen writes Fukanzazengi (“Universal Recommendation for Zazen”), a foundational statement on zazen practice and posture; later recensions survive, but the composition is traditionally dated to the year of his return from China.
Dōgen composes Bendōwa (“Discourse on the Practice of the Way”), his earliest known writing in Japanese, arguing for the centrality of zazen and clarifying how his approach differs from other Buddhist options in Japan.
Dōgen writes Genjōkōan (“Actualizing the Fundamental Point”) for a lay follower, one of his most influential early essays later incorporated into Shōbōgenzō and widely used to articulate Sōtō views of practice-realization.
Dōgen’s community consolidates around Kōshō-ji (Kōshōhōrin-ji) in Fukakusa, Kyoto—often described as Japan’s first independent Zen temple—creating an institutional base for training and for his expanding teaching activity.
Dōgen composes Tenzo Kyōkun (“Instructions for the Cook”), presenting kitchen work as rigorous practice and illustrating his broader program of integrating Zen training with detailed monastic roles and standards.
Facing mounting institutional pressures in Kyoto, Dōgen and his students leave Kōshō-ji and move to Echizen (present-day Fukui area), enabling the creation of a large rural monastery aligned with his ideals of discipline and training.
Dōgen establishes the monastery complex initially associated with Daibutsu-ji in Echizen; its completion marks the material foundation for what becomes Eihei-ji, central to the institutional future of Sōtō Zen.
Dōgen changes the temple name from Daibutsu-ji (“Great Buddha Temple”) to Eihei-ji (“Eternal Peace Temple”), a symbolic step presenting his community as a mature Zen monastic institution in Japan.
Dōgen travels to Kamakura at the invitation of the regent Hōjō Tokiyori, extending Sōtō influence to the shogunate’s political center and strengthening elite patronage networks beyond Kyoto and Echizen.
After the extended Kamakura stay, Dōgen returns to Eihei-ji, where his teaching and the recording of his sermons continue in a more settled monastic setting.
Dōgen writes Hachidainingaku (“The Eight Understandings of the Great Person”), described in its colophon tradition as his last Shōbōgenzō composition, emphasizing ethical restraint, meditative stability, and wisdom as an integrated path.
After falling ill and seeking treatment in Kyoto, Dōgen dies in 1253, leaving leadership to his disciples and cementing Eihei-ji as the primary institutional anchor for the tradition that develops as Sōtō Zen in Japan.
Dōgen and the Establishment of Sōtō Zen in Japan (1223–1253)
