He is the abbot of Dokuozan Genko-ji Temple of the Soto School, a garden designer, and a professor in the Department of Environmental Design at Tama Art University. Born in 1953, he graduated from the Department of Agriculture in the College of Agriculture at Tamagawa University in Japan and practiced at the head temple Sojiji. While creating Zen gardens, he has given lectures at schools and museums around the world.
As a garden designer, he has received numerous honors, including the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Foreign Minister’s Commendation, the Governor General’s Award of Canada, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2006, he was selected by the Japanese edition of Newsweek as one of the “100 Japanese the World Respects.”
His major works include the garden at the Embassy of Canada in Japan, the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel garden, the garden of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bergen in Norway, and the garden at Hotel Le Port Gojimachi. His published books include The Monk’s Cleaning Method, Understanding Japanese Gardens, The Zen Garden, Muso Soseki, As It Is, A Recommendation of a Simple Lifestyle, and Zen: The Art of Simple Thinking, among others.

CEO of Seoahn Total Landscape Architecture Co., Ltd. and an adjunct professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Seoul National University. His notable works include the landscape design for the Won Dharma Center of Won Buddhism in the United States and the basic and detailed designs for the Amorepacific Technology Research Institute. She has received numerous awards for his projects, including the Environmental Culture Award (1998) for the traditional garden Heewon at the Ho-Am Art Museum, the Seoul Architecture Award (2003) for Seonyudo Park, the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Eastern Region Landscape Project Award (2004), the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Professional Award (2004), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Award (2013) for the Won Dharma Center. Currently, she is leading the project for the botanical garden within Magok Central Park in Seoul.

She majored in Japanese at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She has worked as an editor for many years, organizing books in various fields including science, humanities, and history. She is currently working as a professional translator. He has translated Miyuki Miyabe’s Reason, Seicho Matsumoto’s Masterpiece Short Story Collection, Alaska, A Story Like the Wind, Tadao Ando’s I, Architect, and more than 80 other books.