Sochu

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Venerable Sochu (Martin Goodson) is the Yorkshire born Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk at Shobo-an, the lay training temple run by the Zen Centre in London.

Before being ordained by the young Japanese temple priest Daiko Iizuka, he worked as a clerical officer in the personnel department of MSF, the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union on Wandsworth Common. A ceremony was performed on 26 June 2004 by Iizuka, a popular Rinzai Zen priest, married with a young family. Iizuka himself inherited his father's temple, the successful tourist temple, Ichibata http://ichibata.org/e-ichibata/e-sansaku.htm in Shimane, Japan. Daiko Iizuka first visited England in 1989, before he was married, as one of the attendants to another Japanese teacher and spent 1990 visiting Europe on a Eurail pass. He stayed at Shobo-an in St John's Wood during the winter months while studying nearby at the Hampstead School of English http://www.hampstead-english.ac.uk/first.shtml A popular modernising young monk, he wore T-shirts and jeans to the school.

Venerable Sochu oversees a number of classes and courses at The Buddhist Society, London, with which the Zen Centre is closely affiliated.

Ichibata Temple in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, caters for a million tourists a year welcoming visitors with large car parking facilities, busy souvenir shops, and many popular ceremonies including a Pets' Ceremony http://www.ichibata.org/aigo/