Kyozan Joshu Roshi was born into a farming family in Miyagi prefecture in April 1907. In 1921, at age fourteen, he became a novice unsui (Zen monk) at Zuiryo-ji near Sapporo in Hokkaido under its abbot Joten Soko Miura Roshi. By this affiliation he attended Hanazono middle school in Kyoto, and preparatory courses at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Joshu trained under Joten Roshi and after seven years became an osho (Zen priest) at the age of twenty-one in 1928, receiving the name Kyozan. Later Joten Roshi was appointed Kancho (Head Abbot) of Myoshin-ji, and Joshu Osho followed him there to continue his training. After two years he transfered to Zuigan-ji monastery, where he trained for about ten years before being given the authority as Roshi at the age of forty in 1947, receiving the sanzen room name Denkyo. He then became abbot of Yotoku-in, in the monastery of Zuigan-ji. In 1953 he left Yotoku-in to become abbot of Shoju-an. Shoju-an is the remote temple in the Japanese Alps founded by Shoju Ronin, Hakuin's master. Roshi restored this historic temple and continued to teach there until being invited to America.

He arrived in Los Angeles on July 21, 1962, a time when little had actually been established in the way of Zen practice in the west. He was met by his sponsor, Dr. Robert Harmon, who had rented a small house where Roshi took up residence. Over the next few years Roshi's reputation spread throughout Southern California, the first people received tokudo (Zen ordination as unsui), and seven-day Dai-sesshins were held. In January 1968 the organization's name became Rinzai-ji and it bought its first property, Cimarron Zen Center, as Head Temple.

Three years later, in 1971, Rinzai-ji's main training center, Mt. Baldy Zen Center, was opened high in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. Traditional summer and winter training periods have been held there since under Roshi's guidance and teaching. A very large number of people have undergone Zen training and a large, steady number have received tokudo as unsui. Many of these have matured to osho. In 1974, at Jemez Springs in northern New Mexico, Bodhi Manda Zen Center was created as a large rural residential center. Many other Zen centers were started by Roshi's students. Many of these centers are led by oshos who teach their own students. The oshos have since shown their responsibility in Rinzai-ji by forming the osho council.

An academic 'Summer Seminar on Buddhism' has been held annually since 1977. This was initiated by Kyozan Joshu Roshi as one of the ways to teach Zen. Held initially at Mt. Baldy Zen Center, then Ithaca NY in conjunction with Cornell University, it is now held at Bodhi Manda Zen Center where it is jointly sponsored by the University of New Mexico.

In 1996 Kyozan Joshu Roshi received the "Meritorious Achievement Award" of the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, an organization for the furthering of Buddhism.

Since Roshi's arrival in the west over thirty zen centers have been established in North America and Europe, major Buddhist ceremonies are held at the Head Temple, and the oshos and unsui form a core for the larger sangha. At one hundred years Roshi still energetically and passionately continues his sesshin schedule, teaches and encourages his centers and students, and in so many ways continues extending Zen to the West. A special dai-sesshin and dinner marked his 100th year in the first week of April 2007.