Daigaku rumme biography

The article is appeared in the Cultural News, 2010 May Issue

By Shige Higashi

For the first time in 90 years, the Japan-based Soto Zen Mission in North America receives an American-born and non-Japanese monk as head of the organization.

Born as David Rumme into a Christian family in Iowa, Daigaku Rumme Roshi, who spent 27 years at one of most rigid Zen monasteries in Japan, was appointed the General-Director, or Sokan in Japanese, of the Soto Zen Buddhism North America Office, located at Zenshuji Soto Mission in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles.

His appointment was officially made as of April 1.

Roshiis a Japanese honorific title used in Zen Buddhism that literally means "old teacher" or "elder master" and usually denotes the person who gives spiritual guidance to Zen monks.

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