Taizan Maezumi

Maezumi died unexpectedly while visiting Japan in 1995.

Maezumi died on May 15, 1995, while visiting his family in Japan. Not long before dying, he had given inka (dharma transmission) to Tetsugen Bernard Glassman. He did this to emphasize the Sanbo Kyodan connection of his past into the Dharma transmission of White Plum Asanga, naming Glassman President of the organization in his will.

Maezumi publicly admitted he was an alcoholic in 1983, and sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center. This coincided with revelations that he had been having sexual relationships with some of his female followers at the Zen Center of Los Angeles despite being married to his wife, Martha Ekyo Maezumi, "including one of the recipients of his dharma transmission". According to Kirsten Mitsuyo Maezumi, this "caused the separation of my parents and was the reason my mother left the Zen Center of Los Angeles with my brother and [me] in 1983".

In 1975 Maezumi married his second wife, Martha Ekyo Maezumi, and later the couple had three children (his daughter Kyrie Maezumi is an actress). In 1976, Maezumi founded the non-profit Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values, promoting academic scholarship on Buddhist topics. The White Plum Asanga was also established during this period. His senior student Tetsugen Bernard Glassman opened the Zen Community of New York in 1979 with Maezumi's blessing and encouragement. Another student, John Daido Loori, acquired land in the Catskill Mountains of New York and in 1980 established Zen Mountain Monastery (ZMM) with Maezumi; Loori was installed as Abbot at ZMM in 1989. That following year Maezumi founded a summer retreat for the ZCLA called the Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, which today serves as a year-round residential and non-residential Zen training center. In 1984 another student, Dennis Merzel, left ZCLA to establish the Kanzeon Sangha, an international network practicing in the White Plum lineage.

Also in 1967, Maezumi began studying with Hakuun Yasutani, completing kōan study under him and receiving inka (dharma transmission) in 1970. He also received inka from Koryū Osaka in 1973, making him a lineage-holder in the Sōtō, Rinzai and Sanbo Kyodan schools.

The Zenshuji Soto Mission consisted of a Japanese-American congregation that placed little emphasis on zazen. Maezumi began sitting zazen occasionally with Nyogen Senzaki, in nearby Boyle Heights, Los Angeles for the next two years. In 1959 Maezumi took classes in English at San Francisco State University.The same year he met Shunryū Suzuki for the first time and occasionally visited Suzuki's temple, Sokoji, for ceremonies. Early in the 1960s, Maezumi began holding zazen at Zenshuji for Western students, which eventually led to the opening of the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1967. That same year he married his first wife, Charlene (they divorced in 1971.)

Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi (前角 博雄 Maezumi Hakuyū, February 24, 1931 – May 15, 1995) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and rōshi, and lineage holder in the Sōtō, Rinzai, and Sanbo Kyodan traditions of Zen. He combined the Rinzai use of kōans and the Sōtō emphasis on shikantaza in his teachings, influenced by his years studying under Hakuun Yasutani in Sanbo Kyodan. He founded or co-founded several institutions and practice centers, including the Zen Center of Los Angeles, White Plum Asanga, Yokoji Zen Mountain Center and the Zen Mountain Monastery.

Maezumi was born in Japan on February 24, 1931, to Yoshiko Kuroda-Maezumi and Baian Hakujun Kuroda, a prominent Sōtō priest, in his father's temple in Ōtawara, Tochigi. In later years, he took the name Maezumi, his mother's maiden name. He was ordained as a novice monk in the Sōtō lineage at age eleven, and in high school began studying Zen under a lay Rinzai instructor, Koryū Osaka. While studying under Koryu he attended Komazawa University—receiving degrees in oriental literature and philosophy. After college he trained at Sōji-ji, and then received shihō from his father in 1955. In 1956 he was sent to the United States to serve as a priest at the Zenshuji in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, a Japanese-American neighborhood. He worked part-time at a factory.