Baian Hakujun Kuroda

Baian Hakujun Kuroda (March 15, 1898 — 1978) was a prominent Sōtō Zen priest and the father of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Kuroda was a dharma successor of Rev. Guhaku Daiosho, who died in 1928. In 1922 he was installed by the Sōtō-shu as Abbot of Koshin-ji in Otawara City, Tochigi Prefecture, which had been in a terrible fire years earlier in 1908. In 1923 he helped rebuild the temple and also graduated from Nihon University with a B.A. from the Science of Religion department.

Kuroda had eight sons, his first dying in childhood in 1926, with Maezumi Roshi (born Hirotaka Maezumi in 1931) taking on the last name of his mother, to carry on her family name. In 1947 he was installed as a member of the Assembly of the Sōtō-shu and, in 1949, he established the Koshin-ji Foundation (Gojikai), designed to support Koshin-ji financially. He built the temple Nasu-dera that same year and, in 1955, constructed Kirigaya-ji in Tokyo.

He served as Vice-director, Adviser, and Chief Adviser of Soji-jiin his lifetime, one of the two main Sōtō-shu training monasteries in Japan. In 1965 he served as Secretariat-President of the Japan Buddhist Federation and, in 1966, as President of the Japanese Association of Religious Organizations. In 1969 he was installed as Head of the Judiciary of the Soto School and also built another temple, Zenkoji-j, in Yokohama. He was also installed as Director of the International Buddhist Brotherhood Association that year and received the rank of Daikyoshi, the highest priestly rank in the Sōtō-shu.

In 1970 he established Busshin-ji (Zen Center of Los Angeles) in Los Angeles, California. The founding Abbot was his son, Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He was installed as chairman of the Komazawa Society that same year. In 1978 he was installed as as Todo (Honorable Abbot) of Koshin-ji before passing away at the age of 81. In 1979 he received the posthumous title Seido from Soji-ji monastery.

Source | Quelle: http://sweepingzen.com/kuroda-hakujun/