Shuichi Thomas Kurai (December 14, 1947—June 29, 2018) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

-born

Soto Zen Soto may refer to: Geography * Soto (Aller), parish in Asturias, Spain * Soto (Las Regueras), parish in Asturias, Spain * Soto, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles * Soto, Russia, a rural locality (a ''selo'') in Megino-Kangalassky District of the Sak ...

roshi and head abbot of Sozenji Buddhist Temple in

Montebello, California Montebello (Italian language, Italian for "Beautiful Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located just east of East Los Angeles, California, East Los Angeles and southwest of San Gabriel Valley. It is an indepen ...

. Raised in a Soto temple in Japan, he moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

with his parents in 1952, where his father (Reverend Shuyu Kurai) served as priest at the Zenshuji Soto Mission in Little Tokyo. In addition to his role as a Zen teacher, Kurai also instructed others in how to play

taiko are a broad range of Traditional Japanese musical instruments, Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese language, Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various J ...

. Kurai was a member of the American Zen Teachers Association.Paul
Kurai died on June 29, 2018, at the age of 70 following a diagnosis of adult T-Cell leukemia.

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References

* * Soto Zen Buddhists Zen Buddhist abbots 20th-century abbots Japanese Zen Buddhists American Zen Buddhists 1947 births 2018 deaths People from Montebello, California People from Mie Prefecture Japanese emigrants to the United States Rōshi {{US-reli-bio-stub