title: Isshō Fujita
text: # Isshō Fujita
  
  Isshō Fujita (藤田 一照, Fujita Isshō, b. 18 April 1954) was born in Niihama, Ehime, Japan and was head teacher at Valley Zendo, a Sōtō Zen practice center in Charlemont, Massachusetts, USA. Fujita had done studies in child psychology at Tokyo University Graduate School, but abandoned them and became a Zen monk. At the age of twenty-nine, on 8 December, Fujita was ordained a Zen priest, along with Ryōdō Yamashita, by Kōhō Watanabe at Antai-ji temple.
  
  In 1987, Fujita assumed the role of abbot at Valley Zendo, where he lived until his return to Japan in 2005.
  
  2010 - 2018, he was the Director of the Soto Zen International Center.
  
  