Sōtō Zen or the Sōtō school (曹洞宗, Sōtō-shū^?) is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It emphasizes Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference.

The Sōtō school has the most temples under a single legal entity of any Japanese Buddhist organization, at about 14,000, but this is not the largest network as a school of Japanese Buddhism. There are more temples in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism (about 30,000), but these are split across over 10 legal entities, with the largest (Hongan-ji) having about 10,000 temples.

In the 13th century, Dōgen Zenji studied Caodong Buddhism (Chinese: 曹洞宗; pinyin: Cáo dòng zōng) in China and brought back the teachings to Japan. Dōgen is remembered today as the co-patriarch of Sōtō Zen in Japan along with Keizan Jōkin.

Sōtō Zen is now also popular in the West, and in 1996 priests of the Sōtō Zen tradition formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association based in North America.

Nagai Naomasa (永井 尚政^?, 1587 – October 16, 1668) was a Japanese daimyo of the Edo period, who ruled the Uruido, Koga and Yodo Domains. The eldest son of Nagai Naokatsu, he fought at the Battle of Sekigahara and the Siege of Osaka. During the Shimabara Rebellion he was assigned to defend Kyoto.

Naomasa held junior 4th court rank, lower grade (従四位下, ju shii no ge^?) and the title of Shinano no Kami. He retired in early 1658 and became a monk, taking the name Shinsai.

Tenshin Zenki Reb Anderson (born 1943), is a Zen teacher and lineage holder in the Sōtō Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a Senior Dharma teacher at the San Francisco Zen Center and at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Marin County, California, where he lives. According to author James Ishmael Ford, "Reb Anderson is one of the most prominent of contemporary Western Zen teachers."

Reb Anderson was born as Harold Anderson in Mississippi in 1943 and grew up in Minnesota. His father left the family when Anderson was eleven. In his youth, he was a Golden Gloves boxer. Anderson developed an interest in Buddhism while still in his teens. In 1967, he abandoned his graduate studies in psychology and mathematics to study Soto Zen under Shunryu Suzuki at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Anderson was then ordained as a priest in 1970 by Suzuki, who gave Anderson the Buddhist name Tenshin Zenki 天眞全機 (Naturally Real, the Whole Works). In 1983 Anderson received shiho from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir. However, when Baker was forced to resign amid complaints about his affairs with female Zen Center members and his purchase of expensive luxury goods, Baker claimed Anderson never completed the entire transmission ceremony. The board of the San Francisco Zen Center disagreed, understanding Anderson to be Baker's Dharma heir (Baker has since agreed.) After Baker's resignation, Anderson replaced him as abbot.

Taisen Deshimaru (弟子丸 泰仙, Deshimaru Taisen^?, 29 November 1914 - April 30, 1982) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist teacher.

Born in the Saga Prefecture of Kyūshū, Deshimaru was raised by his grandfather, a former Samurai before the Meiji Revolution, and by his mother, a devout follower of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism. Interested in the world, he abandoned his mother's practices and studied Christianity for a long while under a Protestant minister before ultimately deciding that it was not for him either. He returned to his own religion, Buddhism, and eventually came into contact with Rinzai teachings. Eventually, he also grew distant from Rinzai Buddhism and was unsatisfied by his life as a businessman. This led him to meet Sōtō Zen Master Kodo Sawaki, whom he quickly became a disciple of. Deshimaru quickly followed in Master Sawaki's footsteps and devoted himself to the practice of Shikantaza.

Deshimaru was exempted from the army because of his short-sightedness and went to Indonesia.