Tōshōji Monastery, home of the Sōtō Zen International Training Monastery, was founded in the 8th Century. It is located in the Bicchu region in Okayama Prefecture Japan.
In 1412 it became a temple of the Sōtō sect, restored by Kisan Zenji, who established his master Jochu Zenji, as the founder of the Temple. Kisan Zenji was abbot of Tōshōji for 31 years, during which time it grew to be a large monastery. Many of its disciples went on to found their own temples; during the Enkyo period alone, over 40 Tōshō branch temples were founded across Japan. Eventually, the Tōshō family of temples, known as the Kisan-ha, came to number over 1000.
Tōshōji is now in its 100th abbot, Korin Seidō Suzuki Rōshi. In 2009 Seidō Rōshi reopened Tōshōji as a training monastery, and in 2014 Tōshōji became the official international training monastery of the Sōtō school (Shuritsu Senmon Sōdō). During this time, Tōshōji has hosted hundreds of monks, nuns and lay people from over 40 countries.
