Jakusui: What an incredible connection. How was your year studying in America?

Priest Danjo: Embarrassingly, I didn't study at all that year. However, studying abroad was also what led me to become a priest.

Even after going to America, I had to start learning English almost from scratch, of course. At the university, many classmates studied Eastern subjects, and there were all sorts of gatherings.

There was a pottery club on campus. A friend said, “Today, the pottery club is having a gathering to show off our fired pieces. Come along, Kenji!” So, I tagged along. It was at someone's home, and everyone placed their fired pieces on the table to admire them.

Shimizu ware, Arita ware, Bizen ware... Hearing those names just confused me. A friend asked, “Danjo, what do you think of this Shino Pottery?” I replied, “Huh? I know okonomiyaki, but I've never heard of Shino Pottery,” completely unable to answer.

It made me realize I hadn't studied Japan's traditional culture at all. I thought, “I'm twenty-three years old now. Even if I spend the rest of my life studying foreign cultures, isn't it strange to grow up without knowing my own country?”

When talking to a friend, he asked, “What are you studying at school?” I replied, “I'm studying agricultural economics at a university in California.” He asked me, “Why don’t you study that here?”

He told me, "The great experts in natural farming are in Japan, right? There's this very famous person named Masanobu Fukuoka. " Masanobu Fukuoka had actually given lectures on natural farming at my university abroad; he's the one who defined pesticide-free natural farming. My friend said to me,“Danjo, what you're studying is modern agriculture. It uses pesticides heavily, and pesticide companies are tied into the supply chain. Isn't what Mr. Fukuoka, who is in your country, doing the natural way for humans to live safely and truly healthfully?" That's when another turning point in my life happened.

I realized it was pointless to know only about America while knowing nothing about Japan. I grew up on a farm, living a largely pesticide-free, self-sufficient life. Suddenly, memories of how I lived as a child came back like a flood. All these new information materials were leading me to a major turning juncture in my life.

Jakusui: I totally get that feeling. People always strive forward, forward, but then suddenly realize the very thing they sought was already within them all along. That's the shock of it.

Priest Danjo: Exactly. That's when I knew I had to go back. I left the American university. I have happy memories from that year in America, like going to Stevie Wonder concerts at outdoor music venues on holidays.

Jakusui: I see. Did you find a job right away when you returned to Japan?

Priest Danjo: Finding a job wasn't even on my mind. I returned to Katsura in Kyoto and started living in a tiny four-and-a-half-mat apartment. But the feeling that I needed to study Kyoto and Japanese culture gradually became clearer.

Pottery was great, zazen was great—what exactly was Japanese culture? As I kept pondering this, the thought emerged: “That's it! I want to become a specialist in clothing, food, and shelter!” It was a field completely different from my university major in economics, but in my mid-twenties, I decided to start life all over again.

Jakusui: That's interesting. You probably wouldn't have realized it while staying in Japan, but going to the advanced country of America made you see for the first time how much Americans value Japanese things. Coming full circle and returning, the time and money spent in America might seem wasted, but it definitely wasn't wasted.

Priest Danjo: That's right. Many of my American friends were passionate about studying traditional Japanese culture. When they asked me, “You're a Japanese, so why aren't you studying the best traditional things?” it really hit me.

After returning to Japan, I stayed in Kyoto for about half a year. Fortunately, I was used to part-time work, so I felt I could survive anywhere with part-time jobs. Being the second son, I wasn't expected to inherit the family home, and I think I felt a bit uncertain about which direction my life would go. All my university classmates had joined companies and secured stable careers, while I was just drifting around, really in a hippie-like state.

When I was in America, especially in California, there were many people seeking spiritual worlds. I'd heard about people doing zazen and meditation at the San Francisco Zen Center, and about foreigners going to Japan to study Zen. One day, I thought, “Kyoto has so many temples. Maybe I should try ‘zazen’ (seated meditation).” Back then, there was no internet, so I walked around and found a Zen temple near my apartment in Katsura. I joined their zazen session starting at five in the morning.