is a
Japanese term for a lineage chart in
Zen Buddhism and some other Japanese schools, documenting the "bloodline" of succession of various masters or listing priests in a particular school. In Zen the kechimyaku theoretically links a student to all previous generations back to the
Buddha himself. In the
Soto school of
medieval Japan it became commonplace for the kechimyaku to be administered to
lay students for such rituals as the
jukai ceremony. Traditionally this document is administered at the time of
Dharma transmission in Soto Zen, during a
shiho ceremony. In the
Jodo Shinshu sect the kechimyaku is meant to demonstrate "spiritual descent," and not a blood heritage.