Sōkyū Gen'yū

Sōkyū Gen’yū (born 1956 in Miharu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest and novelist who serves as the 35th chief priest of Fukuju-ji temple in the Rinzai sect. He studied Chinese literature at Keio University, debuted as an author in 2000, and won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2001 for his novel Chūin no hana (Flowers in Limbo). His works, which often explore Zen teachings, spirituality, life, and death—particularly post-Fukushima disaster themes—have been translated into French, German, Korean, and Chinese. Terebess