Ryoki Sato is a Soto Zen Togenji 28th chief priest / founder of the Millennium Art Forest Project. Born in 1972, Sato Ryoki trained at Eiheiji and Hokyoji temples. He became a priest of a Zen temple founded 550 years ago in Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture, where he was born and raised. As a Buddhist priest, he works with hospice volunteers on mental health while developing communities and projects with his temple as hubs. In 2011, he encountered a tsunami during the Great East Japan Earthquake and nearly died on the roof of a truck. Since then, led by the question, “What is really to live?”, he practices and studies Buddhism, while lecturing and engaging dialogue on his experience in Japan and abroad.