The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2320 page)

Sotoba
.

Jap. for
st
pa
; also the tablet set up on the grave of a dead person, bearing the name and a sacred formula to assist the spirit of the deceased.

 
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(Chin.,
Ts'ao-tung
). One of the two major schools of
Zen
(Chin.,
ch’an
or ‘meditation’) Buddhism and one of the thirteen traditional Japanese Buddhist schools. The name
s
t
is derived from the names of two places in China: Ts’ao
(Jap., S
kei), where the Sixth Patriarch,
Hui-neng
(Jap., En
) lived; and Tungshan
(Jap., T
zan), where Liang-chieh
(Jap., Ry
kai), the Chinese founder of the S
t
school lived. Among the Japanese schools of Zen, only the
Rinzai
(Chin., Lin-chi) and the S
t
schools have prospered.
The S
t
school was brought to Japan from China by
D
gen Kigen
(1200–53). Doctrinally, the S