KŌSHŌ UCHIYAMA was born in Tokyo in 1912, received a master’s degree in Western philosophy in 1937, and became a Zen priest three years later under Kodo Sawaki Roshi. Upon Sawaki’s death in 1965, he became abbot of Antaiji, a monastery then located on the outskirts of Kyoto. In addition to developing the practice at Antaiji and traveling extensively throughout Japan, lecturing and leading sesshins, Uchiyama Roshi wrote over twenty books on Zen, including translations of Dogen Zenji in modern Japanese with commentaries, as well as various shorter essays. He was an origami master as well as a Zen master and published several books on origami. He died in 1999.

DAITSŪ TOM WRIGHT was born and raised in Wisconsin. After being active in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, he went to Japan in 1967 and lived there for over forty years, teaching English and other subjects at Ryukoku University in Tokyo. He was ordained by Uchiyama Kosho Roshi as a Buddhist priest in 1974 and continued to receive his teachings until 1998, the same year that Wright received transmission from Takamine Doyū Roshi. Wright, who now lives in Hawai’i, is married and has one son.