Sekkei Harada is the abbot of Hosshinji, a Soto Zen training monastery and temple, in Fukui Prefecture, near the coast of central Japan. He was born in 1926 in Okazaki, near Nagoya, and was ordained at Hosshinji in 1951. In 1953, he went to Hamamatsu to practice under Zen Master Gien Inoue, and received inkashomei (certification of realization) in 1957. In 1974, he was installed as resident priest and abbot of Hosshinji and was formally recognized by the Soto Zen sect as a certified Zen master (shike) in 1976. Since 1982, Harada has traveled abroad frequently, teaching in such countries as Germany, France, the United States, and India. He also leads zazen groups within Japan, in Tokyo and Saitama. From 2003-2005, he was Director of the Soto Zen Buddhism Europe Office located in Milan.