Overview
The Denkōroku — "Chronicle of the Transmission of Light" — is the masterwork of Keizan Jōkin (瑩山紹瑾, 1268–1325), founder of Sōjiji and a central figure in the consolidation of Sōtō Zen Buddhism in Japan. Composed in 1309, the text gathers fifty-three cases recounting the transmission of the Dharma from patriarch to patriarch, from Śākyamuni to Eihei Dōgen.
Each case follows a fixed structure: a transmission verse (ge), a biographical account of the key transmission event, a commentary by Keizan (jishū) delivered to his assembly, and a closing verse (ju). The title condenses the central vision: den (伝, transmission) and kō (光, light) — the light of awakening passing from flame to flame across generations.
If Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō is the philosophical work, Keizan's Denkōroku is its biographical and pedagogical counterpart: the Way embodied in concrete lives, precise gestures, and decisive words.
Chapters
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