Japanese monk Seigaku lives a Zen life with as little money as possible in Berlin. The desire for popularity led Seitaro Higuchi from Tottori on the Sea of Japan to Germany¡¯s capital, transforming himself along the way. He had sought to become an actor ¡ª and instead became a monk. How did this come about?
¡°I wanted to be popular with girls,¡± Seigaku says over the phone, laughing. He is speaking from Kyoto, where he is shooting a movie over two months in summer.
As fate would have it, the 36-year-old monk is now also an actor, playing the role of a monk who was a student of poet Matsuo Basho in a fictional documentary by Swiss filmmaker Richard Dindo.
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