Junyu Kuroda Roshi
Baigaku Junyu Kuroda Roshi, better known to most as ‘Hojo-san’, is a younger brother of Maezumi Roshi and Abbot of two temples — Kirigayaji in Tokyo and Fujidera in Gotemba, close to Mount Fuji.
According to him, he has “no life, no biography”. Yet we know that he was born in 1940 and raised in Koshinji, the family temple in Otawara. He graduated from Komazawa University in 1963 and received Shiho from his father in 1968. In addition to traditional Sodo training in Sojiji, he completed in a special course there that qualified him as a Zen Master in 1970.
Since then he has travelled widely and, for example, in 1974 attended the second World Conference of Religions in Belgium and met with Paulus VI in the Vatican. In 1979 he went to Thailand to practice in the Theravada tradition. Later on, he developed a special connection with Bhutan.
From 1973 on Hojo-san often went to the US to support Maezumi Roshi in the Zen Center of Los Angeles where he was, as Tanto, in charge of monk’s training. In turn, Maezumi Roshi would always stay with Hojo-san in Kirigayaji during his annual visits to Japan and together they would discuss the future of Western Zen Buddhism.
Over time, Hojo-san has become an important bridge between East and West and his role became all the more relevant after his brother passed away. He has students all over the world and yet he says “I have no extra, no luggage. Just I am I.” Hojo-san is the father of two daughters, Keiko and Hitomi, and has given dharma transmission to ten successors: Nishimaki Taijun, Kono Seiho, Nakamura Shokan, and Baiyu Matsubara from Japan, Enjo Stahel from Brazil, Seisen Saunders and Egyoku Nakao from the USA, Kanzen Maslankowski and Hojun Szpunar from Poland, and Ingrid Shugetsu Appels from The Netherlands.
In 2000, Tenkei Roshi and Myoho Roshi lived and practised for six months with Hojo-san at Kirigaya-ji. Ever since Hojo-san has been very supportive of their life vocations, and mutual visits occur almost every year. The gorgeous Buddha statue in the Hatto of Zen River and the Manjushri statue in the Zendo are two of his most precious donations.
He has also introduced Tenkei and Myoho to a wide circle of friends in Japan and China, and has orchestrated many of the special ceremonies at Zen River, most notably Roshi’s Shinsanshiki (abbot’s installation ceremony) in 2002, and the inauguration of the new Zendo in 2012 by the abbots of Tiantong and Qita temples in Ningbo, China.
In 2010 Hojo-san became Gondai Kyoshi or Vice-President of the Japanese Soto School, and in 2012 he received the title of Daikyoshi, which is one of the highest ranks in the school.
He passed away in 2021.
