Born the son of the head priest of Kempon Hokke Myorenji Temple in Yamaguchi Prefecture,[1] Kino moved at the age of four to Hiroshima Prefecture, to Honshoji (temple), when his father became head priest there.
[2] While he was a second year student at the School of Indian Philosophy, Literature Department, Imperial University of Tokyo, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army.
At the end of World War II, in 1945, he was taken prisoner in Taiwan.
In the same year his family died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
He was also vice-president of Shogen Junior College in Minokamo, Gifu.