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.