Dr. Wako Kato's History of Buddhism in English lecture
Saturday, Aug. 29, at 11 am
Zesnhuji Soto Mission
123 South Hewitt Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 624-8658 www.zenshuji.org
Dr. Wako Kato is Professor Emeritus of California State University Los Angeles and Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Japan.
Dr. Kato was born in 1930 in the outskirts of Nagoya, Japan, in a Zen temple. This temple was only about 200 years old, which for a Buddhist temple is considered relatively new. He graduated from Aichi Education University in 1951 and practiced Zen at two Zen monasteries to later become a priest at the Zen temple, Hosenji, In Nagoya. He was sent to San Francisco to serve at Sokoji temple by Soto Zen Administration in 1952.
In the mid-1950's, when Rev. Kato was yet a young priest of Soto Zen Mission from Japan, he met Alan Watts, then a radio commentator and prolific writer of Zen and Eastern thoughts. Both met regularly at a Victorian mansion over-looking Marina district and Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Mr. Watts had asked Rev. Kato to read and translate Chinese and Japanese Zen classical texts.
Rev. Kato was therefore instrumental in the early phase of the spreading of Zen Buddhism in the United States through his association with Watts.
Dr. Kato earned a master degree in philosophy from the University of Pacific. Later in 1960, he earned a PhD. in comparative religious studies from then a consortium program in conjunction with the University of Pacific and the University of California, Berkeley.
Due to his vast religious and academic background and his association with Mr. Alan Watts, he was able to promote the fundamentals of Zen Buddhism through his involvement with the "Eastward Movement of Buddhism" in the United States.
He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley before he moved to Southern California.
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