page_title: Terasawa Junsei
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Terasawa Junsei / Biography
context_page_description: Junsei Terasawa is a Japanese Buddhist monk, belonging to the Order Nipponzan Myōhōji. He is notable for being the first Nipponzan monk to be active in Eurasia.
  Being a respected mentor, surnamed Terasawa-sensei or simply Sensei, he has undertaken many years of monastic peacemaking practices in India, Europe and the former Soviet Union. Presently, he teaches groups of monks from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and China. In 2000 he was forbidden to enter Russia in opposition to War in Chechnya.
context_section_description: Junsei Terasawa was born on September 15, 1950 into a poor family in the small town of Hakui, Ishikawa on Noto Peninsula, Japan. Junsei was the second son in the family.
  In Hakui is an ancient Mound, one of the oldest Shinto temples. It is here that the sacred practice of sumo wrestling was first conceived. There is a Christian church there too, a place that Junsei would often visit as a young man.
  Under the influence of the presence of local shrines, spiritual pacifist Leo Tolstoy and active nonviolent resistor Mahatma Gandhi, Terasawa, at 17 years came out of home to go to Tokyo and join a unique peacemaking Nipponzan Myōhōji activity, led by its founder teacher Nichidatsu Fujii.
  Under the guidance of Fujii, he organized and conducted many mass peacemaking actions. This included founding the Peace Pagodas in Milton Keynes and London, England. For the sake of Peace in Europe, shortly before the Berlin Wall Fall, he conducted a seven day prayer without food and water on the grave of Karl Marx, burned his finger phalanx and made a Peace March from Warsaw to the wall.
  Rev. Terasava participated in the annual sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva as a representative of the International Peace Bureau and is one of the advisors for the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace, headed by Dr Frank Kaufmann.
  As one of the leading activists of the nonviolent movement in Europe of the end of the Cold War, Terasawa-sensei suggested Ukrainian religious leaders make a joint application for peace and a non-violent society in Ukraine. On the day of commemoration for those killed on Kyiv Maydan, he initiated yet another peace walk in Kiev and cities of south-eastern Ukraine.
caption: Peace Pagoda with coordinates 52°03′28″N 0°43′32″W﻿ / ﻿52.057697°N 0.725436°W﻿ / 52.057697; -0.725436﻿ (Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda), built Nipponzan Myōhōji in 1980. Milton Keynes, England is the first Peace Pagoda in the western hemisphere.
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK DX6490 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "230", "Image YResolution": "230", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "506", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2708", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3018", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:09:20 17:53:23", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:09:20 17:53:23", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/10", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2404", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "169", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}