Rankei Doryu (1213–1278), a monk from Song China’s Sichuan province, crossed the sea to Kamakura in 1246 and became the founding abbot of Kenchoji — head of Kamakura’s Five Great Zen Temples — in 1253. Sponsored by the fifth regent Hojo Tokiyori, he established Japan’s first full-scale Zen training monastery following authentic Song monastic regulations. His vegetarian cuisine at Kenchoji is widely said to be the origin of kenchinjiru soup (‘Kencho-ji soup’). After the Yuan dynasty destroyed Southern Song in 1279, Rankei was temporarily exiled to Kai Province under suspicion of being a Yuan spy, but the suspicion was cleared and he returned to Kenchoji, dying there in 1278 and posthumously receiving the title ‘Daikaku Zenji’ — the first Zen master title ever bestowed by the Japanese court. Visit Kenchoji in Kita-Kamakura to walk in his footsteps.