Donggao Xinyue

CHINA, Zhejiang, Jinhua; Ming to Qing dynasty

Donggao Xinyue was a Chan master and artist who was better known as Toko Shin’etsu in Japan. He was born in Puyang (present day Pujiang, Jinhua), but is also well known for his time spent in Japan where he established the Jusho branch of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism. Master Donggao joined the monastic order when he was young and attained realization when he was 33 years old. He stayed in Yongfu Temple at West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang after the fall of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and in 1676, he was invited by abbot Chin’i Doryo of Kofukuji Temple in Nagasaki, Japan to teach the Dharma. Master Donggao eventually became the abbot of Tentokuji Temple in Mito, which he later renamed and reestablished as Jushozan Gionji Temple.
Skilled in calligraphy, painting, and seal engraving, Master Donggao is regarded alongside Duli Xingyi, also known as Obaku Dokuryu, as one of the founding fathers of Japanese seal engraving. His seal works include Not Bound By Matter, and his calligraphic work, Poems on Praising Master Mukan Fumon, is kept at the Ho’s Calligraphy Foundation in Taipei, Taiwan.