Our Founder:
Rev. Soyu Matsuoka Roshi

Soyu Matsuoka Roshi was born in Japan in 1912, in Yamaguchi Prefecture near Hiroshima. His family has a history of Zen Buddhist priests dating back over six hundred years. Matsuoka Roshi came to the United States in the 1930s, and spent time in the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. He founded the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago in 1949. At the time, Matsuoka Roshi was a gondaikyoshi (the equivalent of a bishop) in Soto Zen Buddhism, responsible for Soto Zen activities across all of North America.

In 1970, when Matsuoka Roshi left Chicago to found another Zen Center in Long Beach, California, Rev. Kongo Langlois was appointed his Dharma successor and became abbot of the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago.

Matsuoka Roshi passed away in 1997.