The Light in Kyoto

Ken Rodgers, Kyoto Journal’s Managing Editor for nearly 40 years, was a brilliant editor who nurtured countless writers. He was also a poet, farmer, and ardent pilgrim, whose Buddhist principles permeated all aspects of his life.  He lived fully in the present: birdsong, a 12th-century sculpture of Kannon, new rice shoots, a sunset over the Kyoto hills—were the real news of the world for him. When he suddenly left us last November, we were stunned. Ken’s intelligence, warmth, and groundedness were vital to the Kyoto Journal ethos. His friend Pico Iyer, a long-time contributor, wrote the following tribute in KJ 108:

For 37 years—almost since the birth of this magazine—Ken Rodgers was my connection with Kyoto and the brightest and most light filled correspondent in my life. Whatever was happening in my head, or the world—elections gone wrong, cancer in loved ones, another forest fire—I would see his name in my in-box and know that sunshine was on the way.

It’s hard for me to imagine Kyoto Journal—or Kyoto—without Ken; but I can pick up 108 issues—the auspicious number itself would have delighted him—and again be guided through a passage of light and joy, by the unclouded and open-hearted spirit shining behind every word.