{"id":2548,"date":"2026-08-20T11:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T02:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/\/.html"},"modified":"2026-08-20T11:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T02:37:08","slug":"rev-gakugen-yoshimizu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/visionary-award-detail-e\/rev-gakugen-yoshimizu.html","title":{"rendered":"Rev. Gakugen Yoshimizu"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post visionary\">\n<div class=\"encouragement-list\">\n<div class=\"item-01\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026.jpg\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"item-02\">\n<p>Rev. Gakugen Yoshimizu<br \/>\n\t\t\tNationality: Japan<br \/>\n\t\t\tDate of Birth: 1978<br \/>\n\t\t\tPosition: Buddhist Priest of the Jodo Shu School, K\u014dsh\u014d-in Temple<br \/>\n\t\t\tSecretary General, Committee for Compassionate Social Action Hitosaji no Kai<br \/>\n\t\t\tDeputy Representative, Isenkai: Jodo Shu Buddhist Nembutsu Association<br \/>\n\t\t\tReligion: Buddhism\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"peace-item clearfix\">\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"reason\"><a href=\"\/pdf\/visionary_award_2026_01_e.pdf\">reason<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"speech\"><a href=\"\/pdf\/visionary-message-01-e.pdf\">message<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<div class=\"contents\">\n<p style=\"padding: 0 0 12px;\">Rev. Gakugen Yoshimizu has long stood in solidarity with people experiencing poverty and homelessness, putting Buddhist compassion into practice through tireless action. He helped establish the communal grave Yui no Haka (\u201cGrave of Bonds\u201d) and found \u2019Hitosaji no Kai\u2018, through which he provides meals, conducts nighttime outreach, offers practical assistance and counselling, arranges funerals, and holds memorial services.<br \/>\nHis activities recognize people not merely as recipients of assistance, but as neighbors with whom life is shared. His work embodies the bodhisattva path by safeguarding human dignity both in life and after death. He has also made Buddhist temples available for use by local communities and fostered cooperation among religious practitioners, support organizations, professionals, and residents. By confronting poverty, isolation, discrimination, and the loss of social bonds, his pioneering work rebuilds human connections and promotes peace in everyday life. It truly embodies the ideals of the Niwano Peace Prize Visionary Award. <\/p>\n<div class=\"rl-gallery-container rl-loading\" id=\"rl-gallery-container-1\" data-gallery_id=\"2547\"> <div class=\"rl-gallery rl-basicgrid-gallery \" id=\"rl-gallery-1\" data-gallery_no=\"1\"> <div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-1.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-1.jpg\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Making rice balls by hand with volunteers\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-2.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-2.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" alt=\"Packing candy and chocolate along with rice balls\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-3.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-3.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" alt=\"Prayer before distributing meals on night patrol\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-4.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-4.jpg\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Visiting a homeless person to conduct a wellness check\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-5.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-5.jpg\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Distributing sleeping bags to people experiencing homelessness in Ueno park\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-6.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-6.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Night patrol\u2014Rev. Yoshimizu\uff08Photo: Masaru Niimi\uff09\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-7.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-7.jpg\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" alt=\"\u201cYui no Haka\u201d (\u201cgrave of bonds\u201d)\u2014a communal grave for deceased people who experienced homelessness\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"rl-gallery-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-8.jpg\" title=\"\" data-rl_title=\"\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/visionary2026-8.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"594\" alt=\"A Memorial service for the deceased, August 15, 2009\uff08Photo: Fumiaki Fukuda\uff09\" \/><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rev. Gakugen Yoshimizu Nationality: Japan Date of Birth: 1978 Position: Buddhist Priest of the Jodo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visionary-award-detail-e"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.npf.or.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}