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RELIGIOUS FIGURE

Dōgen

1200 - 1253

Photo of Dōgen

Icon of person Dōgen

Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 26 January 1200 – 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for four years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Caodong lineage of Chinese Chan. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Dōgen has received more than 581,644 page views. His biography is available in 39 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 38 in 2019). Dōgen is the 640th most popular religious figure (down from 578th in 2019), the 84th most popular biography from Japan (down from 76th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Japanese Religious Figure.

Dōgen is most famous for his philosophical work "The Shōbōgenzō" and his establishment of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism.

Memorability Metrics

  • 580k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 64.62

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 39

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.80

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.49

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Dōgens by language


Among RELIGIOUS FIGURES

Among religious figures, Dōgen ranks 640 out of 2,238Before him are Yasuke, Scholastica, Baal Shem Tov, Óscar Romero, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Célestin Freinet. After him are Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, Hind bint Utbah, Pancras of Rome, Hans Küng, Pope Leo V, and Twosret.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1200, Dōgen ranks 4Before him are Pope Urban III, Pope Alexander IV, and Pope Celestine IV. After him are Qutuz, Zhang Sanfeng, Villard de Honnecourt, Muhammad al-Nasir, Nicholas Kanabos, Doquz Khatun, George III of Georgia, and Mstislav II of Kiev. Among people deceased in 1253, Dōgen ranks 2Before him is Clare of Assisi. After him are Theobald I of Navarre, Violant of Hungary, Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, Robert Grosseteste, Otto II, Duke of Bavaria, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy, Henry I of Cyprus, Agnes of Assisi, and Vykintas.

Others Born in 1200

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Others Deceased in 1253

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In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Dōgen ranks 84 out of 6,048Before him are Kenji Mizoguchi (1898), Nichiren (1222), Emperor Nakamikado (1702), Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916), Tomoe Gozen (1157), and Emperor Annei (-577). After him are Akira Toriyama (1955), Empress Go-Sakuramachi (1740), Syukuro Manabe (1931), Hasekura Tsunenaga (1571), Benkei (1155), and Chiune Sugihara (1900).

Among RELIGIOUS FIGURES In Japan

Among religious figures born in Japan, Dōgen ranks 3Before him are Kane Tanaka (1903) and Nichiren (1222). After him are Benkei (1155), Abe no Seimei (921), Empress Meishō (1624), Paulo Miki (1564), Mikao Usui (1865), Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659), Sen no Rikyū (1522), Ikkyū (1394), and Dom Justo Takayama (1552).