Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki, born Yeita Sasaki, was a Japanese Rinzai monk who founded the Buddhist Society of America in New York City in 1930. Influential in the growth of Zen Buddhism in the United States, Sokei-an was one of the first Japanese masters to live and teach in America and the foremost purveyor in the U.S. of Direct Transmission. In 1944 he married American Ruth Fuller Everett. He died in May 1945 without leaving behind a Dharma heir. One of his better known students was Alan Watts, who studied under him briefly. Watts was a student of Sokei-an in the late 1930s.

The First Zen Institute of America is a Rinzai institution for laypeople established by Sokei-an in New York, New York in 1930 as the Buddhist Society of America. The emphasis on lay practice has its roots in the history of the organization. In 1875, the Japanese Rinzai Zen master Imakita Kosen founded a Zen institute, Ryomokyo-kai, dedicated to reviving Zen in Japan by recruiting talented and educated lay people. Kosen's most celebrated disciple, Soyen Shaku, visited America in 1893 to attend the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. In 1902 he returned to America where he lectured and taught briefly. Soyen Shaku assigned responsibility for this lay Zen institute to his heir, Sokatsu Shaku. The First Zen Institute's founder, Sokei-an, was Sokatsu's student and came to America with him in 1906 to establish a Zen community. When Sokatsu returned to Japan in 1910, Sokei-an remained to season his Zen and familiarize himself with the American character. After wandering across America and perfecting his English, Sokei-an made several trips back to Japan and in 1924 received credentials from Sokatsu as a Zen master.