is the founder of the Buddhist school
Shinnyo-en
is a Japanese Buddhist new religious movement in the tradition of the Daigo branch of Shingon Buddhism. It was founded in 1936 by , and his wife in a suburb of metropolitan Tokyo, the city of Tachikawa, where its headquarters is still located. ...
.
He was born in Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan. After a career as an aeronautic engineer, he dedicated himself to a religious life. He trained at the
Daigo-ji
is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Its main devotion (''honzon'') is Yakushi. ''Daigo'', literally "ghee", is used figuratively to mean "crème de la crème" and is a metaphor of the most profound part of Buddhist though ...
monastery and became a Great Master (Great Acharya) of
Shingon
file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya
is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...
Buddhism, and founded Shinnyo-en in 1936.
Besides his work as a Great Buddhist Master and teacher, Ito is also known as a talented Buddhist sculptor and photographer. His works were featured in a Centennial Exhibition throughout Japan in 2006 and a major exhibit at the Milk Gallery in New York City in 2008. Other exhibitions include a solo exhibit at the Westwood Art Forum in
Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...
from May 8, 2008 – June 29, 2008.
Works
* Ito, Shinjo, ''Shinjo: Reflections'', Somerset Hall Press, 2009.
Further reading
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External links
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Buddhist Master Shinjo Ito Honored at Milk Gallery ''Art Knowledge News''
Shinjo Ito Center
Shinnyo-en
1906 births
1989 deaths
Buddhist artists
Japanese Buddhist clergy
Shingon Buddhist monks
20th-century Buddhist monks
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