Uchiyama graduated from Waseda University with a masters degree in Western philosophy in 1937 and was ordained a priest in 1941 by his teacher Kōdō Sawaki [REF].
Uchiyama became abbot of Antai-ji following Sawaki's death in 1965 until he retired in 1975 to Nokei-in, also near Kyoto, where he lived with his wife [REF].