Ekan Ikeguchi (池口恵観, born November 15, 1936) is a Shingon Buddhist priest, currently the High Priest of Saifukuji in
Kagoshima
, abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
and Shojoshin-in on
Mount Koya
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.
Mount or Mounts may also refer to:
Places
* Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
* Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...
. He holds a doctorate in medicine from
Yamaguchi University
is a national university in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It has campuses at the cities of Yamaguchi and Ube.
History
The root of the university was , a private school founded by Ueda Hōyō (, 1769–1853) in 1815. In 1863 the school became ...
and is an expert in the
goma
Goma is the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. The lake and the two cities are in the Albertine Rift, the w ...
fire ritual. He has spoken at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and performed a ritual at the
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground zero#World Trade Center, Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounde ...
in October 2001. Ikeguchi recently returned to the United States in November 2012 to preside over the goma fire ritual in Los Angeles to commemorate Koyasan Buddhist Temple's 100th anniversary.
In 1961 he was arrested for attempting a coup d'etat on the Japanese government.
His disciples include sex novelist Shōko Ieda, prominent publisher
Haruki Kadokawa is a Japanese publisher, film producer, director and screenwriter. He was the son of Genyoshi Kadokawa and inherited the position of president of the publishing house Kadokawa Shoten in 1975. Under his guidance, the company soon branched into fil ...
, manga master
Kazuo Koike
was a prolific Japanese manga writer ( gensakusha), novelist, screenwriter, lyricist and entrepreneur. He is best known for his violent, artful '' seinen'' manga, notably ''Lone Wolf and Cub'' (with Goseki Kojima, 1970–6), ''Lady Snowblood'' ...
, and baseball players
Takahiro Arai
Takahiro Arai (Japanese: 新井 貴浩, born January 30, 1977 in Naka-ku, Hiroshima) is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.
His younger brother Ryota is also a professional ...
and
Tomoaki Kanemoto
is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder and manager. In his career as a player he spent 11 years with the Hiroshima Carp before moving to the Hanshin Tigers in 2003, where he spent another 10 years. He holds the world record for c ...
.
Since becoming abbot of Saifukuji he installed a shrine to North Korean leader
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...
. He frequently travels to North Korea, explaining that it is his way of apologizing for the brutality of
Korea under Japanese rule
Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business o ...
. On the death of
Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...
, he said, "I am overcome with sadness to hear of the passing of His Majesty Great Leader Kim Jong Il."
In March 2013, he attempted to purchase the bankrupt headquarters of
Chongryon
The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, " ''
for $48 million. He explained that the North Koreans asked him to maintain the building for Chongryon. He was unable to secure funds for the purchase, and in November 2014 Marunaka Holdings Co. purchased the property for ¥2.21 billion. Marunaka Holdings reportedly plans to ask Chongryon to vacate the property, despite protests from Pyongyang.