Kanji for sesshin

note: Shojin - virya, diligence  -- this is the first entry on the Prajna Paramita page

temple seal             Left Column -  JI-IN-SHO - temple seal Mid Column -  SO-KO-ZEN - San Francisco Zen Right Column - NICHI-BEI-SAN - Japan-US Mountain (place)

1960-02-21 Sokoji Shunryu

to-wa-ko disciple peace light (plus a signature tag) signature of Kazemitsu Wako Kato, Suzuki' assistant (see note on earlier presentation of this certificate)

TO-WAKO plus the little character at the bottom is the signature of Wako Kato. I've figured this out after consulting with Gengo Akiba, head of the Soto sect in America and the abbot of Zenshuji in LA (1998-2010) and has a zendo in Oakland where he and his wife Yoshi (owner of Yoshi's jazz club in Oakland) and some others in that area sit. Ran into them at Harbin Hot Springs recently. So - Hideko and I couldn't figure out what this was all about. She typed out the kanji to the left and we knew their individual meaning but not the whole thing. Rev. Myoshin Lang showed the image of this document from this site to Bishop Akiba and another priest at Zenshuji and they agreed that the bottom character is a handwritten hanko or seal. Myoshin said that Akiba called it a kaou (ka as in flower and ou as in push). And the first character, To, meant student or disciple followed by Wako. Then I remembered that Wako is the Buddhist name of Suzuki's assistant at the time - Dr. Kazemitsu Wako Kato. So Kato signed these documents too, as well as Suzuki. He has a home in Pasadena as well as Nagoya. He's the last surviving priest who assisted Suzuki. - DC c. 7-2006

An overexposed photo of the first sesshin participants.

First sesshin February 21, 1960 overexposed Polaroid. L to R in back, Della Goertz,Kazemitsu Kato, Shunryu Suzuki, George Hagiwara (I think). In front on left - Betty Warren and third from right Jean Ross (I think). Probably Bill McNeil and Bob Hense are in there. - dc

- You can see before cropping it's a polaroid.

Here's an earlier presentation of all this with more info - I would have used instead of making this page if I'd remembered or bothered to look. - dc

Thanks to Hideko Petchey for typing out and translating these kanji

the kanji on the cover are setsu-shin = sesshin - gather mind, touch mind-heart [Sesshin is a Zen word for a concentrated period of zazen, in this case two days, properly seven or five days.

This certificate and photo came from Betty Warren photos and memorabilia