Shodo Harada Roshi

Shodo Harada  (原田 正道 Harada Shōdō, c. 1940), or Harada Rōshi, is a Rinzai priest, author, calligrapher, and head abbot of Sōgen-ji — a 300-year-old temple in Okayama, Japan. He has become known as a “teacher of teachers,” with masters from various lineages coming to sit sesshin with him in Japan or during his trips to the United States and Europe.

He was born into a Zen temple in 1940 in Nara, Japan. While still in high school he met his teacher, the Rinzai master Mumon Yamada, one day, as he was running an errand for his father to Myoshin-ji. After college he entered Shofuku-ji and began his training in 1962 under Rinzai Mumon Roshi, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1982.

In 1982 he was installed as Abbot of Sogen-ji Temple. In September 1989, Harada-roshi came to the United States to provide instruction for students and in 1995 founded Tahoma-san Sogen-ji Monastery on Whidbey Island in Washington.

Mitra-roshi and Sozui Sensei continue to train with Harada-roshi, as do Chozen Bays-roshi, Hogen Bays-roshi, and Hozan Alan Senauke, Vice-Abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center.