Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji or “The Listening to the Dharma Zen Temple on Great Plum Mountain” was founded in Seattle,WA by Zen Master Genki Takabayashi. Genki Roshi was invited by the Seattle Zen Center (founded by Dr. Glenn Webb, at the time a University of Washington Art History professor) to become the resident teacher in the fall 1978. He accepted, and by 1983 formalized his teaching style around a small group of students and founded Cho Bo Zen Ji. Before Genki Roshi came to Seattle, he trained for nearly twenty years at Daitoku-Ji, the head Rinzai temple in Japan, founded in the fourteenth century. In addition Genki Roshi directed a Rinzai temple in Kamakura, Japan. He entered the monastery when he was eleven years old.
After twenty years of tirelessly giving himself to the transmission of Buddha Dharma to the United States, in 1997 he retired as our teacher (see Retirement Teisho), got married and moved to Montana. There he has planted the seeds for yet another American Zen group, and doing the activities he loves best, gardening, pottery, calligraphy, writing and cooking. In 1990, Genki Roshi fully ordained two priests, including Kokan Genjo Marinello Osho and Daiju Gentei Diedricks Osho, who now lives in the Bay Area. On April 8th, 2007, Genki Roshi also fully ordained Genko Ni Osho.
Genjo Osho began his Zen training in 1975, and was ordained an unsui(priest in training) in 1980. In 1981-82 he trained at RyutakuJi in Japan. Genjo Osho was formally installed as our second Abbot on Rinzai Zenji’s (d.866) memorial day January 10th, 1999. In addition to being our Abbot, Genjo Osho is a psychotherapist in private practice, a certificated spiritual director from a program affiliated with the Vancouver School of Theology, married to wife, Carolyn, and devoted father to daughter, Adrienne. Our temple is in the Rinzai – Hakuin Ekaku Zenji Dharma Line, and now that Genki Roshi has retired, Genjo Marinello Osho trains under the tutelage of Ven. Eido T. Shimano Roshi, abbot of DaiBosatsu Monastery in New York, who affirmed Genjo Osho as a Dharma Heir on May 21st, 2008. Genjo Osho-san is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association. Genjo’s Dharma Talks have been published in several Dharma journals beginning with the Theosphical Society’s Quest Magazine in 1991 and most recently, the 2008 winter/spring publication of the Zen Studies Society. Genjo Osho’s commentary on Koan Practice has been translated into several languages.
Genjo Osho has served the greater Seattle community as an Adjunct Faculty member at Antioch University Seattle in Buddhist Studies, a member of the Religious Coalition for Equality, a volunteer Buddhist pastor for the Washington State Department of Corrections, a Spiritual Director associated with Anamchara a Progam of Multifaith Works, and has worked repeatedly with the Church Council of Greater Seattle in interfaith trauma response to tragedies. Genjo Osho is assisted by Genko Kathy Blackman Ni-Osho, who is also a Urasenke Japanese Tea Teacher and a member of the Religious Services Advisory Committee of the Washington State Department of Corrections.
Address: 1811 20th Avenue, Seattle WA 98122
EMail: genjo@choboji.org
Website: http://www.choboji.org
