Katagiri Roshi’s dragon year birthday

We celebrated Katagiri Roshi’s 96th birthday last week (although it’s been 34 years since we celebrated it with him). In 2024, honoring Soto Zen’s Chinese roots, we also celebrate the Year of the Dragon. Emyo Nakayama, one Katagiri Roshi’s original dharma heirs, recently offered these wonderful words on dragons, and the significance of his birth in a dragon year:
 
“Katagiri Roshi was born in a dragon year. The dragon is characterized by a lot of energy/power and people born in these years are charismatic, intelligent, confident, and lucky. When I was given something by him - be it instruction or something like a book - he referred to it as "the dew of a dragon". I have never forgotten that and in this new year, I am reminded all the more of his gifts to me. In Chinese Zen Buddhist teaching, the dragon is a symbol of attainment, and many stories talk about something that perseveres and in the blink of an eye becomes a dragon. Katagiri Roshi was, more than anyone I have ever known, a person who persevered. For this reason, I will always think of him together with the image of a dragon.”
 
With appreciation, Andrea