Wilhelm II.: "Völker Europas, wahrt Eure heiligsten Güter!"
mailto: payer@payer.de
Zitierweise / cite as:
Payer, Alois <1944 - >: Materialien zum Neobuddhismus. -- 4. USA und Hawaii. -- 2. Buddhismus in Hawaii. -- Fassung vom 2005-05-25. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/neobuddhismus/neobud0402.htm . -- [Stichwort].
Erstmals publiziert: 1996-05-15
Überarbeitungen: 2005-06-25 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-05-30 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-05-10 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-05-05 [überarbeitet]; 2005-04-29 [stark überarbeitet]; 2005-04-26 [überarbeitet]; 2003-06-21 [überarbeitet und erweitert]
Anlass: Lehrveranstaltung Neobuddhismus, Univ. Tübingen, SS 1987, SS 2003, SS 2005
Copyright: Dieser Text steht der Allgemeinheit zur Verfügung. Eine Verwertung in Publikationen, die über übliche Zitate hinausgeht, bedarf der ausdrücklichen Genehmigung des Verfassers.
Diese Inhalt ist unter einer Creative Commons-Lizenz lizenziert.
Dieser Text ist Teil der Abteilung Buddhismus von Tüpfli's Global Village Library
A grateful past, a promising future : Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii 100 year history, 1889-1989. -- [Honolulu] : Centennial Publication Committee, Honpa Hongwanji Mission, ©1989. 278 S. : Ill.
100th anniversary : a grateful celebration of Nembutsu, April 22-29, 1990, Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1889-1989. -- [Hilo, Hawaii : Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1990]. -- 128 S. : Ill.
Hunter, Louise H.: Buddhism in Hawaii : its impact on a Yankee community. -- Honolulu : Universitity of Hawaii Press, 1971. -- 265 S.
[Hochinteressant!]
Webbpräsenz von Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii:
http://www.hongwanjihawaii.com/honpa/. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26
The making of America : Hawaii / produced by the Cartographic Division National Geographic Society. -- Doppelseitiges Blatt mit historischen Karten. -- Beilage zu: National Geographic. -- 164, No 5 (November 1983)
[Gute historische Karten]Zur Geschichte Hawaiis:
Payer, Margarete <1942 - >: HBI - weltweit. -- 2. Hawai'i. -- 2.03. Zur Geschichte von Hawai'i. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/hbiweltweit/weltw203.html
Während in der ersten Hälfte des Jahrhunderts die Versorgung der Walfischfängerschiffe der wichtigste außenwirtschaftliche Faktor Hawaiis war, wurden in den 60er Jahren die Wale rar und Petroleum begann das Walöl als zu verdrängen. Auch der Bürgerkrieg führte zur Zerstörung eines Teils der Walfischfängerflotte. An die Stelle des Walfischfangs als wichtigstem außenwirtschaftlichen Faktor traten nun die Zuckerplantagen.
1865
war Zucker zum wichtigsten Faktor der hawaiischen Wirtschaft geworden. Mit der Ausweitung der Zuckerplantagen entstand Arbeitskräftemangel. Zwischen 1852 und 1866 brachte man über 1000 chinesische Kulis aus Hongkong, Macao und San Francisco. Aber die Chinesen arbeiteten in den Plantagen nur so lange wie ihre Kontrakte dauerten (nämlich 5 Jahre), dann gingen sie in die Städte und eröffneten eigene Geschäfte und wurden so eine Konkurrenz der Weißen, die sich beim König von Hawaii beschwerten und Maßnahmen gegen die Chinesen verlangten. Die Situation auf dem Arbeitsmarkt war aber noch schlechter geworden: Epidemien von durch die Weißen eingeschleppten Krankheiten führten zu einem katastrophalen Rückgang der einheimischen Bevölkerung.
In dieser Situation denkt man daran, Japaner als Arbeiter zu importieren.
1868
Erste Ladung Japaner bekommt noch unter dem Shogunat Erlaubnis zur Auswanderung als Wanderarbeiter. Erste Japaner (141 Männer, 6 Frauen, 1 Kind) auf Hawaiischen Zuckerplantagen.
Abb.: Japanische Arbeiter in Zuckerrohrplantage Hawaiis[Bildquelle: 100th anniversary : a grateful celebration of Nembutsu, April 22-29, 1990, Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1889-1989. -- [Hilo, Hawaii : Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1990. -- 128 S. : Ill.. -- S. 26]
1868
Aufhebung des Shogunats in Japan, Meiji Herrschaft.
Abb.: Japanischer Holzschnitt in traditioneller Manie: Der japanische Kaiser und Hofdamen in europäischer Kleidung, 1888[Bildquelle: Chronik des 19. Jahrhunderts / Imanuel Geiss (Hrsg.). -- Dortmund : Chronik Verlag, ©1993. -- ISBN 3-611-00312-3. -- S. 552]
1871
Freundschafts- und Handelvertrag zwischen Japan und Hawaii, in dem die Beschäftigung von Japanern in Hawaii unbeschränkt freigegeben wurde. Faktisch aber durften 14 Jahre lang keine Japaner nach Hawaii kommen
1876
Vertrag mit USA: Zuckerimport u.a. aus Hawaii zollfrei, meiste USA Produkte in Hawaii zollfrei. Folge: riesiger Produktionsanstieg: Arbeitskräftemangel, Immigration von Chinesen (die ihre eigenen Tempel, u.a. für Kuan Yin bauten), Portugiesen, Norwegern, Deutschen, Polynesiern
1881
Abb.: König KalakauaKönig Kalakaua von Hawaii geht auf Weltreise, reist nach Japan und überlegt unterwegs laut, ob es nicht gut wäre, in Hawaii den Buddhismus einzuführen. In Japan schlägt er eine Union Japan-Hawaii vor als Teil einer Union und Föderation der asiatischen Nationen und Souveräne unter der Führung des japanischen Kaisers, doch daraus wurde nichts.
1885
Japanische Arbeiter kommen wieder nach Hawaii. Beginn der christlichen Mission unter den Japanern auf Hawaii.
1886
Japan garantiert freie Emigration nach Hawaii, sichert aber auch Rechte und soziale Versorgung der Auswanderer.
1919
Hazama Tatsuyo wird als Picture Bride nach Hawaii verheiratet. Ihr Schicksal ist typisch für das ungezählter anderer Picture Brides.
"Hazama Tatsuyo: Young Picture Bride
Between 1908 and 1924 the single men in Hawaii, who wanted to marry a woman from ]apan, were allowed to do so, but the woman could not go to Hawai'i before the marriage. This led to the custom of 'picture marriage' (sashin kekkon).
In 1919, when I was an eighteen-year-old living in the Hiroshima countryside, a nakahodo came to ask my parents for my hand in marriage to a young man in far away Hawai'i. The nakahodo brought a picture of a young man standing in a dark American suit. I'll never forget walking very far with my mother to have my picture taken to send to Hawai'i. When we and our families had agreed on the marriage, it was recorded in the Koseki Tohon in Hiroshima. I had no problem in accepting the arrangement because it was the Japanese custom for parents and the nakahodo to arrange the marriages.
After a simple shashin kekkon, picture marriage, I went to live with my in-laws for six months. This, too, was the custom, but I was so unhappy because I had to work very hard in my in-laws' home. I was like a servant; no, my life was worse than a servant's. So I ran away to my family several times, but each time, my in-laws and the nakahodo came to plead with me to return to their household. Since I was the chonan's (oldest son's) bride, they said I had to stay with them for six months. Some dejected picture brides refused to return to their in-laws' houses and were registered as divorced before they ever met their husbands.
After six months, my father-in-law accompanied me and a young sixteen-year-old picture bride for my husband's brother, to the port city of Yokohama. We travelled by jinricksha, a small carriage pulled by a man, and by train to the port city. It was my first train ride and my first view of the ocean! I was excited about the trip so I didn't worry about what my new husband would be like. The young girls in my village wanted to have the opportunity to travel.
The funachin, boat fare, was $53.00, and we had to pass an inspection to show that we were free of diseases. Once on board the Shunyo Mara, the brides showed off the photographs of their husbands. I was so ignorant about the trip that I had packed my clothes and my husband's picture in the trunk which was taken from me and stored in the hold. I was so embarrassed because the other brides teased me and wouldn't believe that I had packed his picture away.
Most of the trip on the Shunyo Maru was miserable. I was so seasick that I couldn't eat. The trip to Honolulu took eight days. I was too sick to get up so I lay on my bunk for six of those days. Just as I began to feel better, our ship reached Honolulu Harbor. By then I was suffering from the heat because I had to wear the heavy kimono which I had on when I boarded since my things were in storage.
As we docked, I looked down and recognized my husband from the photograph; but we were not allowed to meet or talk together for about a week. We were taken straight to the immigration station for another inspection. We were all afraid of the inspector who was Japanese for he talked loudly, scolded everyone, and ordered us around. Once, he grabbed my hairdo and said: 'Get rid of your nezumi (rat).' It was the style to wear a high hairdo with a cushion inside to give it body, so I had one of these in my hair.
When the day finally came for us to meet our husbands, we excitedly helped to dress each other in a montsuki, special kimono with a crest, and a fancy sash called a maruobi. Outside the immigration station, our husbands waited eagerly for a glimpse of us. We were nervous and shy. I thought my husband was tall and handsome. We rode in a two-horse carriage to Onomichiya Hotel. The next day, my husband and his brother took us to see Waikiki.
Two days later, we went by boat to Lihue, Kaua'i, to live on the plantation. We were already married in Japan, but we did have a party. The people in the camp prepared the food for the celebration which was held in the social hall.
One month after arriving in Hawai'i, I was expected to go out to the fields to work. A friend made me a shirt, skirt, and apron, and arm protectors; and I did hoe hand. Later, I had the job of putting foot-long pieces of sugar cane into bags for planting. If the bags were not full enough, we were scolded and told to fill the bags again. Some luna were strict and shook the bags hard to make the stalks settle way down. Others were kind and gave the ladies a wink and went on. I was young so I was a pretty good worker. When I became pregnant, I went to Honolulu to learn a skill. I boarded there for six months while I learned to sew so that I wouldn't have to labour in the hot sun with my children.
Tatsuyo Hazama, Age 83 Interviewed in 1978 and 1984
(Okage Sama De - The Japanese in Hawaii / ed. by D.O. Harama & J.O. Komeiji, (Bess Press, Honolulu, 1986))"[Quelle: Andreasen, Esben. Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist religion & culture. -- Honolulu : University of Hawai`i Press, ©1998. -- xiv, 199 S. : Ill., map ; 24 cm. -- ISBN: 0824820282. -- S. 153 - 155]
Abb.: Karte von Hawaii (©MS Encarta)
Bis 1894 emigrieren 29.000 Japaner nach Hawaii. Obwohl aufgrund der Abmachung von 1886 die Japanern in Hawaii eigene Friedhöfe hatten, fehlten (mangels an Geistlichen) meist die so überaus wichtigen Totenriten. Dies führte bei frommen Japanern zu schweren Problemen.
Abb.: Sôryû Kagahi
[Bildquelle: 100th anniversary : a grateful celebration of Nembutsu, April 22-29, 1990, Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1889-1989. -- [Hilo, Hawaii : Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1990. -- 128 S. : Ill.. -- S. 20]
Die religiöse Situation der Japaner in Hawaii machte einem jungen Geistlichen des Jodo Shinshu (Wahrer Reines Land Buddhismus), Sôryû Kagahi, Sorge. Er ging zu seinem religiösen Vorgesetzten und machte ihm den Vorschlag, buddhistische Geistliche nach Hawaii zu senden. Doch dieser hielt das für zu früh, insbesondere da die (expanisons-politisch motivierten) missionarischen Aktivitäten sich auf die Mandschurei, Süd-China, Korea [1894 japanisch-chinesischer Krieg wegen Oberhoheit in Korea. 1895 muss China Unabhängigkeit Koreas anerkennen. 1910 Annexion Koreas durch Japan] konzentrierten. Außerdem wisse man ja nichts Genaues über die Zustände in Hawaii. So ging Sôryû Kagahi in privater Mission nach Hawaii, wo er
1889-03
im März ankam. Er sammelte Geld für einen Tempel und trank Sake, weswegen die Hawiian Evangelical Association verbreitete, dass eine Buddhistische Organisation erschienen ist, die die Trunksucht fördert.
"THE REMARKABLE REVEREND KAGAHI
Anyone passing by Kojima Hotel at #1 Beretania Street in Honolulu the evening of March 3,1889 would have heard sounds never before heard in the kingdom of Hawaii. The clear sweet striking of a small gong. The sonorous rhythm of a sutra chanted in Sino-Japanese. The first Shin Buddhist service in these islands was being held by the Reverend Soryu Kagahi, a young priest from the Kyushu province of Oita-ken.
He had arrived in Honolulu the previous day with the determined intent of lighting the dharma lamp of Jodoshinshu (Shin Buddhism) in these islands.
Soryu Kagahi had been ordained after several years of study under the renowned Buddhist scholar of his home province, Reverend Engetsu Toyo. It was not an easy time in which to become a Buddhist priest. Shinto had been declared the state religion of Japan. There was serious talk in the Meiji era about outlawing Buddhism just as, during the Tokugawa era, Christianity had been prohibited. Shinshu followers had always been independent-minded people, unafraid of confronting and taking action against social injustice, unafraid of coping with hardships.
In the 1880's Rev. Kagahi's home island of Kyushu still suffered from the devastation of the bitter 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, an unsuccessful civil war against the Meiji Emperor. Many Buddhist temples had been burned and temple families stripped of their lands. Even the family of Hongwanji's Abbot Koson Ohtani in Kyoto's headquarters temple, Honzan, felt the crippling effects of the economic depression that followed.
This is why in 1884, when the chance for emigration to Hawaii first was open to them, Kyushu people as well as many from the hard hit farming villages of Hiroshima-ken eagerly left to earn the incomes promised by plantation labor contracts in the faroff Polynesian Kingdom of Hawaii.
Immigration of Japanese to Hawaii had first been suggested in 1881 when Hawaii's King David Kalakaua visited Japan and became a close friend of the Meiji Emperor. Kalakaua had proposed emigration of farmers from Japan's depressed areas to repopulate his kingdom. In just one century of contact with western diseases and culture, the numbers of native Hawaiians had plummeted from 400,000 to fewer than 50,000.
Hawaii desperately needed new citizens - and the Hawaiian sugar industry needed a dependable labor supply. Kalakaua saw the possibility of filling both needs through Japanese emigration. For him, Hawaiians and Japanese were 'cognate' races. Kalakaua's proposal was one that Emperor Meiji's government rather reluctantly agreed to pursue.
The reassurance asked repeatedly by Foreign Minister Count Inouye during the several years of negotiation over Japanese emigration to Hawaii was that the Kalakaua government agree not to allow Japanese immigrants to be classed or treated as 'coolies'. It was with this understanding that the first contingent of Japanese contract laborers arrived in Honolulu in February 1885. They were hailed by Honolulu's two newspapers as "the chief event of Kalakaua's reign -a boon resulting from the friendship between Hawaii's King and the Emperor of Japan".
Back in Kyushu from occasional letters that must have come to Oita-ken, Rev. Soryu Kagahi no doubt learned that the 'silken thread of kindness' with which Robert Walker Irwin, Hawaii's agent in Japan, had urged that these newcomers be treated had rarely been used. The whiplash of a luna (supervisor) was the more common plantation experience.
Kagahi was deeply touched by the difficulties of these immigrants living in a strange country, knowing neither Hawaiian nor English, lacking the support of a sangha, the sustenance of the dharma. It saddened him to think no priest was there to perform the reassuring Buddhist rituals that provide a spiritual rhythm to the natural flow of life and death. As he reflected on all this Soryu Kagahi made a personal commitment. He must propagate Jodoshinshu in Hawaii!
His former teacher Rev. Toyo, who was also his father-in-law, applauded his decision. On January 3,1889, fueled with missionary zeal, knowing he would have to depend on his own resources for his mission, Kagahi made the four day journey to Osaka, and on to Kyoto. On January 9th he attended a special service at Honzan where he was able to meet with Monshu Koson Ohtani to tell this quiet, gentle Head Abbot of all Nishi Hongwanji temples of his resolve to light the lamp of the dharma in Hawaii'.
The Monshu encouraged him saying, "Be sure to see Rev. Renjo Akamatsu at Tsukiji Betsuin before you sail from Yokohama."
Reverend Kagahi did so, and was immeasurably grateful for the gift Rev. Akamatsu gave him - a scroll that had been personally inscribed by the early nineteenth century Monshu Honnyo Shonin with the myogo - the six characters of Namu Amida Butsu. To receive this seemed to the young priest from Kyushu to be a token of official Hongwanji approval of his mission.
This was a correct understanding according to that invaluable researcher of Kagahi's activities, the late Reverend Seikaku Takesono whose timeless legacy is the detailed information contained in this history regarding Reverend Kagahi's primary role in the foundation of Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii which was also the foundation of the Hawaii Betsuin.
There is no record as to whether Rev. Kagahi used this myogo for the service which he conducted at the Kojima Hotel on the evening of March 3rd for Japanese returning home on the Ohmi Maru, the ship on which he had traveled to Hawaii. On March 2nd, after the Ohmi Maru anchored in Honolulu Harbor, he had been interviewed by the head Immigration Inspector, Mr. Joji Nakayama who proved a most helpful and influential first contact. It was Nakayama who recommended the Kojima Hotel to the new arrival.
On the morning of March 3rd Rev. Kagahi went to see the Consul-General, Taro Ando, to explain his status as a minister and his intent in establishing a Shin Buddhist mission here. Ando, who freely provided Japanese interpreters to Christian missionaries, was negative about Kagahi's chances for being allowed to propagate Buddhism in a Kingdom where Christianity was virtually a state religion.
In the account he later wrote of his five months and seven days of activity establishing Shin Buddhism in Hawaii, Kagahi comments that Consul General Ando 'went beyond his official dutues' in his advice, and that this official seemed much impressed by the positive effect of Christianity on the morals of certain Japanese 'ruffians'. The Consul-General's blunt stance that 'when in Rome do as the Romans do' was one that would be repeated by several of his successors. These emissaries of the Emperor made no attempt to encourage Buddhist propagation. Quite the opposite, their conviction was that when a Japanese lived in a Christian country, even temporarily, they had best become Christians so as not to antagonize their hosts.
Ando's was the first of what were to be numerous warnings to Kagahi that Buddhism should not and would not take root in Hawaiian soil. The Kyushu priest was not one to be easily discouraged. For the ten days following his evening service at Kojima Hotel on March 3rd, he made various calls on known Shinshu laymen, enlisted the support of some of them, and looked for a house to rent that would be suitable for a temporary 'hall of worship', a branch temple or fukyojo.
On March 9th Rev. Kagahi conferred with the Zen Minister, Rev. Taigo Asahina. On March 10th he paid his respects to the graves of twenty-two Japanese seamen in Makiki Cemetery. By March 13th he had rented a house on Emma Street, in the vicinity of what is now Royal School. His landlord was Mr. Cleghorn of Waikiki. Those familiar with Hawaiian history will recognize a bright karmic thread. Cleghorn was the father of young Princess Kaiulani whom King Kalakaua had proposed betrothing to an Imperial Prince of Japan on his visit there in 1881.
His first day at the Emma Street address Rev. Kagahi put up a sign that announced to passersby this two-story building was now Dai Nippon Teikoku Hongzvanji-ha Hawaii - The Hawaii Mission of Honpa Hongwanji of Imperial Japan. He made a simple altar in the large first floor room. He moved himself and his few possessions into one of the two bedrooms on the second floor. Then he spread the word that a special service would be held the evening of March 15th.
Hawaii Kiko (My Account of Hawaii), Kagahi's record of his propagational activity in Hawaii says that at this March 15th service he displayed the myogo given him at Tsukiji Betsuin. Among the seventy persons who attended this first Otai-ya service of Shinran Shonin in Hawaii were two much respected officials from the Bureau of Immigration - Mr. Keigoro Katsura and Mr. Saiji Kimura. It was also pointed out to Rev. Kagahi that two well known Christians, Mr. Seikaku Takeshita and Mr. Shintaro Egi were there. Both Keigoro Katsura and Saiji Kimura were to be pivotal in the early development of Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.
Saiji Kimura especially was a supporter and benefactor of Kagahi's efforts and, later, those of Bishops Honi Satomi and Yemyo Imamura. Kimura, a labor supervisor in the Bureau of Immigration was originally from Nagasaki. He had studied in France for several years but while there he had run out of money. A Jesuit monastery had made it possible for him to survive and out of gratitude he felt he must become Christian. However, his mother was a devout Buddhist. Her letters constantly reminded him of gratitude to Amida Buddha. This influence caused him to remain Buddhist when he came to Hawaii in his mid-twenties. In March 1889 his residence was in Hilo but he was often in Honolulu on business, as he happened to be for the March 15th Otai-ya service.
On the evenings of March 16th and 17th memorial services were again conducted by the energetic Rev. Kagahi. Each night the attendance was large. It was clear that the rented house on Emma Street was already inadequate. Before tackling the task of fund raising to buy a site and building for a permanent fukyojo here in Honolulu he decided to accept Saiji Kimura's invitation to carry the dharma to the Big Island. The plan was for Kagahi to go to Hilo on the March 19th trip of the interisland steamer, SS Kinau bound for Hilo.
The night before his departure he was aroused by unexpected visitors. His account of this gives some idea of the suspicion he was encountering. In those early years Japanese in Hawaii were being misled and often swindled by imposters posing as Buddhist priests.
Kagahi wrote of this: "When I was about to retire at 9:30 p.m., Mr. Fukui, Mr. Shintaro Tominaga, Mr. Yasumori, Mr. Hamaya and Mr. Goto came to see me. They all claimed to be Christians. Mr. Fukui possessed the highest education and being familiar with the Nichiren School of Buddhism he inquired on the question concerning the sole purpose of the appearance of the Buddha in this world. When I answered him, he immediately offered his interpretation by quoting from the book 'Rokuyosho'. It was evident that they were trying to test my ability and learning."
He impressed at least one of these men with his sincerity and his ability. Mr. Fukui was to become an important figure in Kagahi's missionary activity.
Reverend Kagahi spent almost a month on the island of Hawaii, sparing no effort to propagate Buddhism wherever he went and whenever he had the chance. In Hilo he stayed at the home of the enthusiastic Saiji Kimura, who agreed with Kagahi on the need for a permanent fukyojo in Honolulu. From Hilo, Rev. Kagahi toured the Big Island, guided by one of Saiji Kimura's employees, Mr. Bunai.
Particularly fruitful was Kagahi's visit to the Hamakua Coast. His account of this reads: "On April 1st I left Ookala and reached Kukaiau at 11:00 a.m. I stayed at the home of Rev. Jotai Kodama. That evening, I delivered a sermon. Rev. Kodama was a Jodo Shinshu priest whose contract was about to terminate. Therefore I encouraged him to support my propational endeavors and he readily agreed to come to Honolulu as soon as possible."
Upon his return to Honolulu April 18th, Rev. Kagahi was both surprised and pleased to find that Rev. and Mrs. Kodama had already arrived, and were living at and taking care of the Emma Street fukyojo.
During Rev. Kagahi's absence, several prominent laymen like Mr. Keigoro Katsura, the Immigration Bureau advisor, had been working to begin to raise funds for purchase of a permanent temple in Honolulu. Rev. Kagahi records Mr. Katsura as most helpful also in negotiating with the various government agencies and finding the right piece of property. It was at this time that Mr. Takiya Fukui left his position in the Japanese Consulate to devote himself to Rev. Kagahi's project.
On May 14 negotiations were completed for the purchase of a building and lot located off Fort Street at the end of Kukui, in the area called Fort Lane, behind the present Honolulu Fire Station. The total cost of land and building was $3000. An additional thousand dollars was needed for repairs, remodeling, and the installation of a simple altar. Fund raising for this continued throughout the summer, and was not restricted to Honolulu. Jodoshinshu followers on the outer islands were solicited, particularly Japanese merchants and the original 1868 small band of immigrants who had permanently settled themselves in the Kingdom. Joji Nakayama contacted many generous hakujin (white people) living in the resort area of Waikiki and their donations were substantial as were those of well to do Japanese like Saiji Kimura.
Rev. Kodama was left in charge of the new fukyojo and the renovations in progress while Kagahi went off to pursue propagation on the outer islands. On May 20th he was on Maui where one of those offering support was, amazingly enough, a Shinto priest, Mr. Kanoya, whom he met at Paia.
In June, back in Honolulu, Rev. Kagahi became involved in negotiations with "Mr. Tatsuzo Mori who was a Catholic but came to visit me occasionally and participated in the religious services. He was familiar with the current situation in Hawaii as well as with foreign affairs and therefore I was able to benefit from his knowledge."
On July 12th Mr. Takiya Fukui went to the Big Island, touring the areas around Hilo where he solicited donations for the Honolulu temple. At the same time Mr. Niihara and Mr. Tanaka were touring the island of Maui soliciting funds.
Two days later Rev. Kagahi was also on the Big Island. "I arrived in Hilo at 6:00 a.m. on the 14th, and met Mr. Kimura who readily approved the construction of a temple in Honolulu. He also initiated the idea of building a branch temple and a hospital in Hilo." Under the powerful leadership of Saiji Kimura, who made a large contribution himself, funds for a Hilo fukyojo were readily and promptly raised. Hilo at that time had a larger Japanese population than did Honolulu.
The site leased was a lot on the corner of Front and Ponahawai Streets. Twelve hundred dollars was spent in construction of a small temple, twenty by thirty. The completion date of April 1889, given in some accounts, is considered erroneous by Rev. Takesono who researched the matter with detailed care. His sources showed that construction did not begin until late July of that year and that the probable completion date was more likely August 1889.
On July 29th, Reverend Kagahi was still on the Big Island, staying at the home of Dr. Koan Kobayashi in Papaikou. "He is a former Christian," Kagahi wrote of Dr. Kobayashi, "but upon realizing the shallowness of the religion he tended to incline towards Buddhism. In fact, he finally decided to embrace Buddhism together with a group of 50 or 60 people whom he had previously helped to introduce to Christianity."
By August 13th Rev. Kagahi and Mr. Fukui were on Kauai. They arrived in Waimea on the 23rd. There Kagahi was preparing to give a sermon when "a certain person came over to tell us that I was not allowed to put on my minister's robe and also not allowed to speak about hell nor about the Pure Realm. At this, Mr. Fukui immediately confronted that certain person in order to refute his error." Evidently this was one example of the impression of many in Hawaii that it was illegal to mention any religion other than Christianity.
On his way from Waimea to Kekaha, Rev. Kagahi visited Mr. Watase at Mana and held a lengthy discussion which he recorded in Hawaii Kiko. "It became evident that Mr. Watase was deeply moved and he decided to embrace Buddhism. Moreover, he promised to endeavor to support the propagation of Buddhism."
At frequent intervals Rev. Kagahi had been sending letters to Japan describing the gratifying success of his propagation efforts and the establishment of two branch temples within the short period of less than five months. Much interest in the Hawaii mission was generated by his letters, and in October, as Kagahi prepared to return briefly to Japan to report to Honzan, he learned that two Jodoshinshu priests were due to arrive in Honolulu. One of them, like himself, had been trained by Rev. Engetsu Toyo in Oita-ken.
The excitement of this news is in Kagahi's account of what happened. "On October 1st the Yamashiro Maru, which was the 9th ship (from Japan) to arrive in Hawaii, arrived in Honolulu. Right away I hired a boat and boarded the ship. There I met both the Rev. Doro Nishizawa and the Rev. Sanji Goto. Then, I escorted both of them to the temple in Honolulu."
Rev. Doro Nishizawa, the former student of Rev. Toyo, was a native of Fukuoka-ken who had been ordained at age 28 and become a registered member of Komyoji Temple in Shimonoseki.
Kagahi does not give Rev. Goto's background, or anything about him beyond the mention of his arrival. What joy and relief for Rev. Soryu Kagahi as he departed for Japan on the return trip of the Yamashiro Maru to know that the two temples he had established as Hongwanji fukyojos would be well cared for in his absence by these two newly arrived priests and by Rev. Jotai Kodama."[Quelle: A grateful past, a promising future : Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii 100 year history, 1889-1989. -- [Honolulu] : Centennial Publication Committee, Honpa Hongwanji Mission, ©1989. 278 S. : Ill. -- S. 1 - 8]
1889-03-03
Sôryû Kagahi feiert erste shin-buddhistische Zeremonie auf Hawaii im Kojima Hotel Honolulu, #1 Beretania Street statt.
1889 - 1897
"Period of uncertainity"
"THE PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY
On October 19th Rev. Kagahi arrived in Yokohama. He proceeded at once to Kyoto to give a report of his activities. Among the many who endorsed and supported him on his return were, according to Reverend Takesono's research, Hongwanji's Chief Administrator, Bishop Tetsunen Ozu and Rev. Renjo Akamatsu of Tsukiji Betsuin, President of 'Senkyokai', Hongwanji's Overseas Mission Association.
The wide publicity given to Rev. Kagahi's accomplishments "encouraged several aspirants to express their wish to propagate Buddhism in Hawaii". The list of eager missionaries received by Bishop Ozu and by the Overseas Mission Association included such young men as Rev. Shuzan Umetaka, Rev. Seigyo Kudo, Rev. Yujo Takata and Rev. Ungai Gamo.
At this point, had Rev. Kagahi chosen to make only a casual remark concerning his belief that in Hawaii Amida Buddha must be identified as being the same as the Christian God, it might have been overlooked as a hoben, an expedient means necessary to propagate Buddhism in a Christian society. Rev. Tsunemitsu, in his "Shin Hawaii" (New Hawaii) writes:"In his endeavor to propagate Buddhism in a foreign country, it was inevitable for Rev. Kagahi to recognize the existence of God in his teaching because the law in many foreign countries prohibited the propagation of religions which did not."
Unfortunately, Rev. Kagahi not only expressed this verbally but wrote an article concerning this in a leading religious journal. There was an immediate uproar. All support for him was quickly withdrawn. Rev. Engetsu Toyo, Kagahi's teacher and father-in-law, "expressed his vehement opposition". In less than one month Rev. Kagahi's admirers became his critics.
Although his desire to return to Hawaii remained an ardent one, he realized that for him to do so would prevent the two fukyojos and the Buddhist Propagation Association he had established from receiving any future support from Honzan.
It must have been with a breaking heart that Soryu Kagahi made this decision. He renounced his priesthood. For the next thirteen years he voluntarily confined himself in his family temple of Kotokuji in Oita-ken. There, at the end of November 1889, with all the details fresh in his memory, he wrote the account of what he had done and experienced in founding Hongwanji in Hawaii. His "Hawaii Kiko" (My Account of Hawaii) remained largely unknown and unread until nearly a century later, when Rev. Seikaku Takesono re-discovered this treasury of the earliest history of Jodoshinshu propagation in these islands.
Soryu Kagahi, (whose Buddhist name was Houn-in Shaku Soryu) died in January 1917, an unappreciated and almost forgotten man.
The mists of a century of rumours, misunderstandings and failed memories clouded appreciation of this founder of Hongwanji in Hawaii until, as recently as the 1980's, the late Rev. Seikaku Takesono found a definitive record of Kagahi's five months and seven days in Hawaii. In a series of several articles in Hawaii Betsuin's monthly publication, Goji, Rev. Takesono confirmed that Rev. Kagahi was indeed the founder of Hongwanji in Hawaii, that from the two temples he established in the spring and summer of 1889 in Honolulu and Hilo grew the present network of Shin temples in the statewide Hawaii Kyodan. The Honolulu fukyojo established March 13, 1889 by Rev. Kagahi was the firm and undeniable base from which developed the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.
Thanks to Rev. Takesono's many research trips to Japan and his years of patient checking of every detail, and thanks also to Rimban Norito Nagao's vivid translation of Rev. Takesono's material, the rightful place of Soryu Kagahi in the history of Hongwanji in Hawaii can now be recognized.
Somehow he must have learned over the years of the productive fruit of his initial propagation efforts in that Polynesian Kingdom. As Rev. Kagahi had planned and his friend Saiji Kimura requested, Rev. Doro Nishizawa was assigned to the Hilo fukyojo where he remained until March, 1891. At that time Rev. Ungai Gamo, whose name had been listed as ready to come to Hawaii for Honzan in the spring of 1890, arrived to replace Rev. Nishizawa. Such ardent young ministers as Nishizawa and Rev. Ungai Gamo had no problem about waiting for funding or status from Honzan. Like Soryu Kagahi, propagation was their commitment. On their own, paying their own way, they came to provide an interim period of support and survival for Jodoshinshu in Hawaii.
For some this period from late 1889 until 1897 was known as 'the period of uncertainty'. This is an accurate description both in terms of Jodoshinshu propagation and Hawaii's political climate. Hongwan-ji's second bishop, Yemyo Imamura, looking back on these critical years before his arrival, spoke of them as "a dark period when the budding temples were overrun by imposter priests without credentials and without morals who swindled and embezzled, causing the project to fall into disrepute."
The six years following Kagahi's March 2, 1889 arrival (now celebrated as Hongwanji Day by Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii) were years in which the lay leaders of the Buddhist Propagation Association like Yasuhei Suga, Saiji Kimura, and Mr. Kobayashi of Kobayashi Hotel had no idea whether their efforts would ever be part of Honzan's overseas propagation sponsorship. Neither did priests like Rev. Nishizawa, Rev. Gamo, and Rev. Kakujo Kuwahara know whether they would ever be officially recognized as kaikyoshi, literally, those who open the door of the teachings to non-Buddhists.
On each of the islands where Japanese immigrants had settled there continued to be numerous episodes of swindling and embezzling by men posing as priests. The resulting distrust which Soryu Kagahi had initially encountered continued for much of the 1890' s, discouraging both the handful of loyal laymen and the few pioneer priests who were sincere and dedicated missionaries. On the positive side, however, the effect of these imposters was to convince nembutsu followers that they must have some guarantee that priests coming from Japan were not out for their own personal gain. Only Honzan would be an absolutely reliable source of authentic minister-teachers of the dharma.
It is important to emphasize that for Honzan, Hongwanji's headquarters temple in Kyoto, the question of funds (which they did not have) to support propagation in Hawaii had no bearing on their reluctance to follow up on Kagahi's activities. The way in which the teachings were to be offered in Hawaii, without the expediencies Kagahi had thought essential, was the biggest issue barring their approval of the Hawaii mission.
Honzan itself was self-sustaining as were each of the individual family-owned and staffed temples in the Hongwanji network throughout Japan. This had been Jodoshinshu tradition and experience since the thirteenth century founding of the institution by Kakushinni, daughter of Shinran Shonin, who wished to provide a place for her father's remarkable nembutsu teachings to be preserved and propagated.
In the 1890's Honzan felt that their scarce funding for propagation activities had to go to support Shinshu missionaries working in Taiwan, Russia, and Mongolia. Hawaii was a different kind of mission, which they at first considered to be primarily for the large group of Japanese immigrants in the islands. It was therefore to be expected that temples in Hawaii be as self supporting as were Jodoshinshu temples in Japan.
The changing political climate in Hawaii also contributed to making this a period of uncertainty for Hongwanji. In 1891, on the death of King Kalakaua, his sister Liliuokalani had succeeded to the Hawaiian throne. Those Americans in Hawaii who were powerful businessmen and plantation owners feared that the new Queen's preference for the British interests in her kingdom meant she might accede to Hawaii's becoming a crown colony. In 1893, spurred by this notion, these men staged a successful revolution. With the tacit assistance of the American consul and American naval forces present in Honolulu they deposed the Queen, imprisoned her in Iolani Palace, and formed their own provisional government. Their immediate goal was annexation of Hawaii by the United States Government, but a change of presidents delayed this by some five years.
The end of the Monarchy left the treaties and tacit agreements Japan had made with the government of Kalakaua in limbo. No longer could they be assured of fair or just treatment of Japanese citizens in Hawaii. The privilege of Japanese becoming Hawaiian citizens, which had been discussed with the Kalakaua government, was not a subject entertained with the slightest favor by Hawaii's new provisional government. In case there was a sudden need to protect her citizens dwelling in this unstable former Kingdom, Japan kept a succession of her warships - one after another 'visiting' Honolulu, ready to give sanctuary - although sanctuary for over twenty thousand immigrants could not have been provided by the entire Japanese navy.
It was during such a state of turmoil that, in 1894, Rev. Ungai Gamo left Hilo as soon as his replacement arrived. This new missionary priest was Rev. Kakujo Kuwahara of Yamaguchi-ken's Saihoji temple at Oshima. He continued the propagation of Jodoshinshu by foot and by horseback, as had Rev. Kagahi, Rev. Nishizawa, and Rev. Gamo. Meanwhile, back in Kyoto, Rev. Gamo had gone to Bishop Tetsunen Ozu, Chief Administrator of Honzan, to plead for reconsideration of support for overseas propagation in Hawaii. Rev. Takesono suggests in his research manuscript that it was Rev. Gamo's report on spiritual conditions among the Japanese immigrants in the Hawaiian Kingdom that finally resulted in Honzan's sending Rev. Ejun Miyamoto to Hawaii in 1897 to survey these conditions and investigate the activities of the two temples in Honolulu and Hilo.
At that time political relations between Japan and the new Republic of Hawaii were at their very worst. This short-lived government had refused entry to qualified Japanese immigrants - a serious breach of the agreements that for a dozen years had been the formal basis of emigration from Japan to Hawaii. The battleship Nanizva was a powerful presence in Honolulu harbor while Japanese diplomats negotiated redress for this and other breaches of agreements by the Republic of Hawaii. The revolutionary government, having been in the wrong, finally acknowledged its error and paid the sum of $75,000 in indemnities to the Japanese government. In those days of $5.00 a month house rent in Honolulu, this was a most significant and extraordinary amount.
A year earlier the Japanese Immigration Bureau in Honolulu had closed. The office and residence of the Japanese Consul-General were moved from Emma Street to Nuuanu. Their stone office building on the corner of Emma Street was leased to Mr. Yasuhei Suga, a wealthy wholesale merchant who was one of the leaders of the Buddhist Propagation Association and a prominent layman in the Honolulu fukyojo. Mr. Suga used part of this building as a warehouse and part as headquarters for the Buddhist Propagation Association as well as for occasional Hongwanji services.
In February 1897 one of the last of the independent Shinshu priests to come on their own, Rev. Sanju Kaneyasu, replaced Rev. Kuwahara in Hilo. One month later, in March 1897, Honzan's emissary, Rev. Ejun Miyamoto, arrived in Honolulu. For the next five months this sensitive intellectual assessed propagation needs in the islands and evaluated the work of the priests serving the temples in Hilo and Honolulu. That June, in response to a petition from lay members, he gave official recognition as kaikyoshi to two of the independent ministers, Rev. Sanju Kaneyasu of Hilo and Rev. Gyoshin Sato of the new branch temple in Kealakekua, Kona.
Presumably, since Rev. Kagahi's departure in 1889, Rev. Jotai Kodama had remained at the fukyojo on Fort and Kukui. During his sojourn in Honolulu, Rev. Miyamoto resided there, and referred to the Emma Street building as the Hongiuanji Honolulu Shutchojo (Branch Office of Hongwanji in Honolulu). Since there is no further mention of Rev. Kodama, it is possible that he was not the ordained Shinshu priest that Soryu Kagahi had understood him to be.
In their petition to Honzan asking to be serviced with priests approved and sent by Honzan, the Honolulu laymen mention having discovered that a priest whom they had trusted was an 'impostor'. Their petition emphasized their eagerness to have 'real priests' sent to Hawaii. They apologized for their previous errors in judgment, explaining, "Although mistakes were made on the part of our believers, please know that these resulted from the enthusiasm of Buddhists who eagerly wished to have missionary work done in this land."
This petition, which Rev. Miyamoto carried back to Honzan in September 1897, asked that "suitable priests be sent to reside in the Teaching Hall so we can be healed of this thirst for the Buddha's teachings." The assurance to Honzan was, "We Buddhists will be responsible for any expenses that the operation may incur and we are willing to make every effort to campaign for the construction of appropriate temples." The signature of Yasuhei Suga was the first of sixteen on this petition. A similar petition from Hilo was signed by eight men, including Saiji Kimura.
In October 1897 Honzan's approval of these petitions was signified when it sent the first official kaikyoshi to Hawaii - Rev. Shoi Yamada, who over the span of the next forty years was to found the first Hongwanji mission on Kauai, to propagate Jodoshinshu in other countries around the Pacific rim, and to end his long life in China, where he was known as 'the sage of Peking'."[Quelle: A grateful past, a promising future : Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii 100 year history, 1889-1989. -- [Honolulu] : Centennial Publication Committee, Honpa Hongwanji Mission, ©1989. 278 S. : Ill. -- S. 9 - 14]
1889-08(?)
Abb.: Der erste Hilo Hongwanji Tempel, August (?) 1889[Bildquelle: 100th anniversary : a grateful celebration of Nembutsu, April 22-29, 1990, Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1889-1989. -- [Hilo, Hawaii : Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, 1990]. -- 128 S. : Ill. -- S. 21]
Kagahi erbaut das erste japanische buddhistische Tempelchen in Hilo auf Hawaii. Ende 1889 kehrte er nach Japan zurück, um materielle Unterstützung für seine hawaiische Mission zu erbitten. In Japan erhielt er zunächst die Zusage von Unterstützung.
Dann aber machte Kagahi einen großen Fehler: in einem Artikel in einer populären Zeitschrift macht er den Vorschlag, dass buddhistische Missionare in westlichen Ländern den christlichen Gott mit dem ewigen Buddha identifizieren sollten, es komme auf die Hingabe an die letzte Wirklichkeit an, nicht auf den Namen, den man dieser Wirklichkeit gibt. Damit hatte er aber in ein Wespennest gestochen: Es war die Zeit, da die Buddhisten um ihre seit langem verlorene Macht und Ansehen kämpften [Seit 1868 war Shinto Staatsreligion. Haibutsu Kishaku - Vertreibe den Buddha, zerstöre die Lehre war Motto der Meiji-Beamten. Buddhistische Geistliche wurden gewaltsam gezwungen, shintoistische Zeremonialhüte zu tragen und dem Kaiser zu opfern. Shinto Priester übernahmen buddhistische Institutionen, buddhistische Schreine wurden zerstört und Sûtras verbrannt. 1876 hatte sich die Lage für die Buddhisten etwas verbessert.] und als das Christentum ein aggressiver Rivale geworden war. So waren die buddhistischen Führer ganz hingegeben der Aufgabe haja kensei, der Reinigung des Landes von der Häresie des Christentums, dessen Missionare seit 1859 wieder ins Land kamen [Seit der großen Christenverfolgung 1612-1614 und der Abschließung des Landes 1639 war Japan für Missionare (und andere Westerner) unzugänglich gewesen]. Deshalb wurde Kagahis Gleichsetzung von Jehovah mit dem ewigen Buddha als Pervertierung des Dharma zurückgewiesen. Prompt wurde ihm die zugesagte finanzielle Unterstützung entzogen und er verschwand aus dem Licht der Öffentlichkeit.
1889/1890
In Hawaii wirkten im Tempelchen von Hilo ab 1889 bzw 1890 jeweils zwei japanische Geistliche unter ihren Landsleuten und erbauten auch ein Spital, was alles den christlichen Missionaren gar nicht gefiel: So schrieb der Evangelist Jirô Okabe an seinen Vorgesetzten:
"Die Buddhisten in unserer Stadt versuchen nun mit großem Eifer, nicht nur die Japaner sondern auch die Eingeborenen zu ihrem Glauben zu bekehren, den sie Wahrheit nennen." [Zitat bei Hunter, Louise H.: Buddhism in Hawaii : its impact on a Yankee community. -- Honolulu : Universitity of Hawaii Press, 1971. -- S. 52]
Auch traten Betrüger als japanische Geistliche auf.
1892
Sir Edwin Arnold schlägt der Königin von Hawaii eine Union mit Japan vor. Aber es war zu spät.
1894
Republik Hawaii.
1896
Von den 22.299 Japanern auf Hawaii sind
- 711 Protestanten,
- 49 Katholiken,
- 4 Mormonen,
- 21.535 Nicht-Christen.
1897
Das Hauptquartier des Jodo Shinshu schickt einen Emissär nach Hawaii, um die Lage zu erkunden. Japaner auf Hawaii machen eine Petition an das Hauptquartier. Und so wird Hawaii offiziell in das Missionsprogramm des Hauptquartiers aufgenommen und Geistliche nach Hawaii geschickt.
1898
Hawaii wird Territorium der USA
1900 - 1932
Abb.: Denkmal für Yemyo Imamura, Honolulu [Bildquelle: http://www.shindharmanet.com/cyber/photos.htm. -- Zugriff am 2003-06-21]Yemyo Imamura (1867-1932) ist Bishop (Kantoku [監督], später Socho) der Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.
Über ihn gibt es eine japanische Dissertation, deren Abstract hier wiedergegeben wird
"Tomoe, Moroe: Amerika bukkyō no tanjō : Imamura Emyō ron = The birth of Americanized Buddhism : a historical study of acculturation of Japanese Buddhism with special reference to Bishop Yemyō Imamura / Moriya Tomoe. -- 1999. -- [4], 230, [2] leaves. -- Dissertation (Ph. D.)--Meiji Gakkuin University, 1999. This dissertation focuses on the religious thought of Yemyo Imamura (1867-1932), a pioneer Shin priest and missionary to Hawaii, who developed an alternative Japanese Buddhist perspective in America. In 1899, several years after graduating from Keio University in Tokyo, Imamura was appointed as a missionary to Hawaii. In 1900, he became the Bishop (Kantoku later renamed Socho) of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii, a position he held until his death in 1932. During this period he endeavored to transform the Jodo Shinshu tradition of Japanese Buddhism, to which most of the Japanese immigrants belonged, into an Americanized form of Buddhism. In analyzing the development of Imamura's thought in Hawaii, this dissertation will consider the following three points:
First, this study analyzes the process whereby Japanese Buddhism was transformed into an Americanized Buddhism. It shows how the nationalistic and hierarchical expression of Japanese Buddhism could become independent of political authority and be developed into an egalitarian and democratic religious institution. This study focuses on the thought of Imamura and his ideas about how Buddhism should be Americanized. It does not give much attention to the wider influence of Imamura on the Japanese-American community, on the lay members of Honpa Hongwanji in Hawaii, or on the host society, since previous studies have already considered these areas in some depth.
Second, this study considers the problematic relationship between religion and politics in Japan and the United States from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. This provides the larger context for understanding Imamura's thought. In Japan, of course, the issue of religion and nationalism revolves around the modern Emperor system. In the United States, in spite of the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state, it revolves around what Robert N. Bellah identified 'American Civil Religion.' Even though the Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion, Bellah points out that the Judeo-Christian tradition has been integral to American society and its political institutions. Although Bellah's article on 'Civil Religion' appeared in 1967, over three decades after Imamura's death, this dissertation finds that the idea of civil religion is particularly helpful for understanding nativistic attitudes of some Americans toward Buddhism as well as the pervasive notion in prewar Hawaii that only Christianity could be regarded as a truly 'American' religion.
Third, this study addresses the problem of how religion in modern states maintain an independent stance and avoid supporting nationalism. In order to deal with this problem in Japan, the author focuses on the writings of Yukichi Fukuzawa and Manshi Kiyozawa, two Japanese whose views on the social role of religion provided an important alternative to Shinshu orthodoxy. There is clear evidence that Imamura was deeply influenced by both of these individuals. The dissertation uncovers what Imamura inherited from Fukuzawa and Kiyozawa and shows how he developed their ideas in Hawaii. Through an analysis of Imamura's writing, this study shows how he opened the door religious freedom in America to the non-Judeo-Christian tradition of Buddhism.
The central ideas of the dissertation can be briefly outlined as follows. In Japan, as explained above, the modern state was structured according to the religio-political hierarchy of the Emperor system. Under this system, Japanese Buddhists sought to follow their Buddhist beliefs, but were nevertheless inclined to support the growing nationalism as Japanese citizens. Representatives of the Shin sects officially disseminated the ideology Shinzoku nitai which defined the relationship between the sacred and the profane or the combination of religious belief with worldly morality. This ideology was used to legitimize their submission to the Emperor.
Since the Shin sect was a religious institution, it could not be entirely subsumed under the government Therefore, it is not surprising that another movement within Shin sect would emerge and challenge the dominant Shinzoku nitai ideology. As concrete examples of this movement, this study considers the writings of Yukichi Fukuzawa and Manshi Kiyozawa, and shows how they criticized the Shinshu orthodoxy and tendency of contemporary Buddhists to passively submit to political authority. Both searched for an alternative way to democratize religious institutions and exercise socially relevant compassion.
This movement obviously formed an important part of Imamura's discourse in Hawaii. Although Imamura initially supported Japanese nationalism at the turn of the century, he gradually abandoned it and began to emphasize the necessity Americanization. It is clear that he did not simply switch his loyalty from the Emperor to the United States because he criticized nativistic movements in contemporary America at the same time. This study shows how Imamura's views came to differ from the policies of the Mother Temple in Japan and how his religious faith enabled him to stand apart from both Japanese and American forms of nationalism.
The fact that Imamura was geographically and culturally separated from Japan allowed him to start a new approach to Buddhist mission. His mission work initially focused on Japanese laborers on sugar plantations, most of whom wished to return to Japan after accumulating sufficient wealth and educate their children as loyal subjects of Imperial Japan. In time, however, most of these laborers decided to remain in Hawaii and their children became American citizens as a result of the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. In light of these changes, Imamura recognized that the Honpa Hongwanji Mission would have to radically change its approach to mission.
The Hongwanji Mission and the Japanese language schools it sponsored adopted a new educational policy that aimed at assisting the Japanese children in American public schools to become good citizens. Imamura seriously studied American history and culture and was particularly impressed by American pragmatism. At the same time, he guided the Hawaii Hongwanji Mission in its democratization and in the establishment of the English Department. Imamura also made plans to establish a school to educate and train American-born Buddhists as missionaries, rather than recruiting Japanese Kaikyoshi dispatched from the Mother Temple in Kyoto. In 1929, the English Department was transformed into a non-sectarian institution called the International Buddhist Institute that published the Hawaiian Buddhist Annual, which contained essays by Buddhists from around the world.
In spite of these efforts, most people in the host society doubted that the Buddhist institution and its Japanese language schools had seriously been Americanized. Tensions with the host society reached their peak in the second decade of the 20th century, culminating in the nationalistic "100 percent Americanization" movement. During the Americanization drive, Buddhism was depicted as "pagan," "heathen,' and as an ."anti-American" religion. The Japanese people were regarded as subjects of Imperial Japan who had no understanding of American ideals or democracy. The Americanization movement became especially powerful when the United States entered World War I and was responsible for cultivating a harsh nativism that criticized immigrants for not being fully Americanized.
This study draws particular attention to the fact that this conflict was largely the result of the collision of a non-Judeo-Christian religion With the 'civil religion' that dominated American society. The author suggests that when a religion is closely related to nationalism, it tends to evolve into a form of religious nativism. Imamura argued, however, that 'the essence of Americanism' was its pluralistic character and recognition of the equality among different religious and cultural values. In other words, conformity to one particular nation was not necessary. Imamura concluded that equal opportunity and religious freedom should also be guaranteed for Buddhists in America. Imamura's notion of pluralism was clearly influenced by the pragmatism of William James and John Dewey, which became an important factor contributing to the birth of Americanized Buddhism. The adoption of pragmatism alone, however, was not enough to Americanize transplanted forms of Japanese Buddhism. In order to truly Americanize Buddhism, it was necessary to reinterpret Buddhism according to American culture.
In one sense, the Americanization of Buddhism can be seen in the transformation of Imamura's religious thought He slowly moved away from the nationalistic Shinzoku nitai ideology and gradually adopted the socially relevant compassion mentioned above. He eventually questioned the legitimacy of the understanding of democracy propagated by the Americanizers, which was shaped by racial and religious prejudice against Japanese Buddhists. During World War 1, when America was fighting for the sake of 'liberty and democracy,' Imamura also articulated a powerful anti-war message based on a passage from a Buddhist sutra.
In sum, the most important characteristic of Imamura's Americanized Buddhism was his socially engaged compassion, which was to be equally enjoyed by every person, regardless of race or nationality. Those ideologies that contradicted this compassion, such as nationalism, prejudice, and war, needed to be criticized and challenged. The perspective that Imamura developed in Hawaii one hundred years ago reveals an important alternative path for modern Buddhism, one which his contemporaries in Japan failed to fully understand or appreciate."[Quelle: http://www.shindharmanet.com/writings/birth.htm. -- Zugriff am 2003-06-21]
1902
Erster Tempel des Nichiren-Shu in Pahala, Hawaii.
Webpräsenz: http://www.nichiren-shu.org/links/hawaii.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-29
1921
Abb.: Rev. M. T. Kirby, 1921
[Bildquelle: A grateful past, a promising future : Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii 100 year history, 1889-1989. -- [Honolulu] : Centennial Publication Committee, Honpa Hongwanji Mission, ©1989. 278 S. : Ill. -- S. 59]Bischof Imamura engagiert Rev. Dr. M. T. Kirby, damit dieser ein English Department an Hongwanji errichte. Dr. Kirby war ein Brite, der vom Katholizismus zum Buddhismus konvertiert war. 1920 war Kirby Geistlicher an einem Pure Land Tempel in San Francisco geworden.
"This did not hinder Bishop Imamura from going forward with his mission. In Honolulu in November 1921 he engaged Rev. Dr. M.T. Kirby, an Englishman who had some time earlier converted from Catholicism to Buddhism to establish an English Department at the Betsuin. In the eyes of Hongwanji's haole detractors a Buddhist converting to become a Christian was fine. A Christian becoming a Buddhist was not. Mary Foster's having become Buddhist continued to earn her the label of eccentric in the community.
In January 1922, six weeks after Kirby began his English dharma propagation at Hongwanji, The Friend, a Christian missionary newspaper, published an indignant article by Albert W. Palmer, the minister of Central Union Church. Under the title 'American Buddhist Ceremony" Palmer lashed out at Kirby's work. "A very curious and interesting bit of religious propaganda is going on just now in Honolulu in the form of a Buddhist English service at the Hongwanji Temple conducted by an ex-Catholic priest, the Rev. M.T. Kirby, Ph.D." Palmer charged that Kirby was not lecturing on Buddhism but launching a tirade against Christianity.
Having heard from others that Kirby was a powerful speaker, on Christmas night (when his own church was having only a musical program and no service) Palmer had gone to hear this new Buddhist voice at Hongwanji. The audience consisted of about 25 Caucasians and 100 Japanese, most of them young people. The service was of course in the new Betsuin. According to Palmer the pulpit was "draped with a beautiful golden cloth" and Dr. Kirby wore "expansive yellow robes". Kirby spoke on the lack of historic documentation for Christmas being the birth date of Jesus and cited the need for Christians to have Christ in their hearts as Buddhists have Buddha in theirs.
This was regarded by Palmer as an affront to Christianity. So were the gathas sung to Christian hymn tunes. Palmer asked the readers of The Friend, "What is the objective the Hawaii Buddhists have in view in bringing Father Kirby here? My strong conviction is that it is not to convert haoles to Buddhism. The object is to discredit Christianity in the eyes of Japanese Buddhists!"
Rev. Kirby's reply, sent to The Friend a few days after Palmer's article in the January, 1922 issue, was not printed until April. In his letter, Kirby denied that he was ever a Catholic priest, clarifies that he was instead a lay brother. He was ordained, but in an Episcopal not a Catholic ministry. "I am but human, far from perfect, but I do not apologize for having simply given a review of the historical problems regarding the birth of Christ. Christ I love," declared Kirby. "His ethics I love as they remind me of those of the Buddha's. I have no quarrel there. But blind faith, credulity, misleading interpretation, the degradation of intelligence, I shall always combat both in Christianity and Buddhism."
In that same April issue, Palmer's reply to Kirby's letter was printed. The controversy was not to end but it did go out of print. That Hongwanji, or any Buddhist group, should have a missionary orientation was until fairly recent decades difficult for Christians to accept. The anti-Buddhist surge of feelings was such in the 1920's that in the public schools of the Territory, many teachers who were Buddhists, particularly members of Hongwanji, were ostracized by their Christian colleagues and harrassed by their Christian supervisors."[Quelle: A grateful past, a promising future : Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii 100 year history, 1889-1989. -- [Honolulu] : Centennial Publication Committee, Honpa Hongwanji Mission, ©1989. 278 S. : Ill. -- S. 58 - 60]
1924
Abb.: Ernest Hunt, 1929
[Bildvorlage: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 2 (Winter 1997). -- S. 46.]
Erste buddhistische Ordination in Hawaii: Bischof Yemyo Imamura (1867-1932) weiht Ernest Hunt (1878 - 1967) zum Hongwanji-Priester mit dem Namen Shinkaku
"HUNT, Ernest (August 16, 1878, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, England— February 7, 1967, Honolulu, Hawaii); married Dorothy Poulton; education: Eastbourne College.
Ernest Hunt, founder of the Western Buddhist Order and leader of the Hawaiian branch of the International Buddhist Institute, was born in England and as a young man became a seafarer. In India he had been introduced to Buddhism. Upon his return to England, he studied for the Anglican priesthood, but on the eve of his ordination he converted to Buddhism.
In 1915, with his wife, Dorothy, he migrated to Hawaii and worked on a plantation. In the early 1920s he moved to the Big Island and opened Sunday schools for the English-speaking children of Japanese plantation workers. In 1924 Bishop Yemyo Imamura of the Honpa Hongwanji Buddhists ordained both Hunt and his wife. Hunt took the name Shinkaku (meaning "true light-bearer"), by which he was most commonly known.
In 1926 the Hunts moved to Honolulu, and Shinkaku became head of the Hongwanji English Department, which Bishop Imamura had created to reach the many non-Japanese-speaking youth of the Hawaiian Buddhist families. Hunt became an active teacher to the children and youth. He composed the Vade Mecum, a book of Buddhist ceremonies in English, while Dorothy, a poet, wrote many hymns for use in the English services.
Hunt's irenic spirit and his nonsectarian approach to Buddhism attracted non-Japanese Hawaiians to Buddhism. In 1928 about sixty people who had been studying with him were formally initiated into the Buddhist religion and formed the Western Buddhist Order as a nonsectarian branch of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission with the purpose of spreading Buddhism among Occidentals.
In 1929 Abbot Tai Hsu of the Lin Yin Temple in Hangchow, China, stopped in Honolulu on his return from the West Coast of the United States. During his brief stay, he presented Imamura and Hunt with the idea of beginning a Hawaiian branch of the International Buddhist Institute. With the goal of breaking down sectarian barriers among Buddhists, branches had already been formed in London, New York, and Chicago. Such a proposal was in line with Hunt's whole approach to Buddhism, and he supported the idea enthusiastically. Hunt became the first vice-president, and Bishop Imamura was elected president for life.
Through the institute, Hunt was able to put into practice his belief that the surest way to Nirvana was through the practice of metta, active goodwill. Hunt organized the institute members, who visited prisons and the sick (including lepers), taught children, built a library, and started a Sunday school for the deaf and blind. The efforts of the IBI revitalized the Hongwanji Sunday school program throughout the islands. He and his wife collaborated in the writing and production of Sunday school lessons.
During the years of the institute, Hunt was at the height of his literary production. He edited four volumes of the Hawaiian Buddhist Annual. He wrote a small pamphlet, An Outline of Buddhism: The Religion of Wisdom and Compassion, for which the Burmese Theravada Buddhists granted him ordination and the honorary degree of Doctor of the Dharma. His wife also received ordination. He also edited the magazine of the institute, Navayana.
Hunt's career was abruptly interrupted by the death of Bishop Imamura on December 22,1932. Imamura was succeeded by Bishop Zuigi Ashik-aga, who, after a very brief stay in Hawaii, was succeeded by Gikyo Kuchiba. Kuchiba turned out to be a fierce Japanese nationalist and dedicated Shin Buddhist. He opposed Hunt's nonsectarian approach to Buddhism, and soon after his arrival in 1935 he fired Hunt and disbanded the English Department.
Forced out, Hunt moved his membership to the Soto Temple and placed himself under the bishop, Zenkyo Komagata. In 1953 he was ordained a Soto-Zen priest and ten years later became the only Caucasian priest in the Western world to receive the rank of Osho for the Soto sect. As a Soto priest he continued to write and produced such works as Gleanings from Soto-Zen and Essentials and Symbols of the Buddhist Faith. He also spent many hours at the temple conversing with the increasing numbers of tourists who stopped to talk about Buddhism.
He died at the age of almost ninety in his home in Honolulu."[Quelle: Melton, J. Gordon: Biographical dictionary of American cult and sect leaders. -- New York : Garland Pub., 1986. -- 354 S. ; 24 cm. -- ISBN 0824090373. -- s.v.]
Von Dorothy Hunt findet man in
Dharma school service book / Dharma School Department, Buddhist Churches of America. -- [ohne Ort : ohne Verlag], 1981. -- 115 S. : Ill.
folgende Lieder:
Abb.: Dorothy Hunt: Morning Gatha [a.a.O., S. 66]
Abb.: Dorothy Hunt: Evening Gatha [a.a.O., S. 44]
Abb.: Dorothy Hunt: Listen to His voice [a.a.O., S. 64]
Abb.: Dorothy Hunt: Saint Shinran [a.a.O., S. 84f.]
1930
Nisshyo Takao gründet in Honolulu die Bodaiji Buddhist Mission. Sie wird vom Bäcker Roy S. Takakuwa weitergeführt. Die ganze Finanzirung der Mission erfolgt durch die Bäckerei. 1982 hat die Organisation ca. 100 Mitglieder.
"The basic concept of Bodaiji teachings is Dai-O-Kyo, filial piety, the lack of which is a great cause of discord and trouble. Filial piety begins in Yojomanjo, the unconditional salvation of true motherhood. Just as motherhood was the source of our nurture, so cooperation, coexistence, and right living lead us to universal salvation. True Buddhism teaches how to live rightly.
An acceptence of the law of cause and effect underlies the teachings; where there is something wrong, one finds the cause and changes it. Thus, when one adopts a program of right living, salvation will come.
Healing is a concept Jjasic to right living. Each person who comes for healing must stick to a rigid diet and must learn to breathe properly. Holy water is also used. Meditation is advised for all for fifteen minutes each day to replenish energy."[Quelle: Melton, J. Gordon: The encyclopedia of American religions. -- Reprint der 3rd ed., ©1989. -- Tarrytown, NY : Triumph Books, 1991. -- Vol III. -- Nr. 1463]
1931
Gründung des Honululu Myohoji der Kempon Hokke Sekt des Nichiren-Shu. Vereinigte sich 1979 mit Nichiren Mission of Hawaii
1935
Gründung des Palolo Kwannon Temple der Tendai-Denomination in Honolulu
"On January 18, 1998, at the invitation of Reverend Eishin Irene Matsumoto of the Palolo Kwannon Temple in Honolulu, Audrey gave a presentation on the beloved Kwannon Sama, who is revered by Buddhists throughout the world as the beautiful Goddess of Mercy and Compassion. The Palolo Kwannon Temple is affiliated with the Tendai Buddhist sect. Our deepest thanks to Reverend Matsumoto and her congregation for their hospitality and warm reception to the spiritual family. Reverend Matsumoto took over the leadership of the Palolo temple from her husband, Bishop Chiko Richard Matsumoto, after he passed away.
Reverend Matsumoto took over the leadership of the Palolo temple from her husband, Bishop Chiko Richard Matsumoto, after he passed away. She undertook rigorous training and discipline at the Mount Hiei gyoin (i.e., Buddhist training center), near Kyoto, Japan. Upon successful completion of her training, Reverend Matsumoto became qualified as a resident minister in 1996. Reverend Matsumoto had previously been an elementary school teacher for 28 years, and gave up her teaching career to carry on the works of her husband. Her late mother in law, Myosei Matsumoto, was the primary force behind establishing Palolo Kwannon Temple in 1935. Myosei Matsumoto was renown for her healing abilities, which she attributed to a divine visitation from Kwannon Sama. The Matsumotos have been well known throughout the years for their kindness and selfless, loving service to their congregation and community. "
[Quelle: http://www.srkspiritualfamily.org/newsletters/9805/newsletter-9805.html#palolo. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-29]
1951-12
Mrs. Tomoko Ozaki von Kona, Hawaii wird von ihrem ehemaligen Lehrer, Mr. Kanshichi Suzuki, in Rissho Kosei-kai (RKK) aufgenommen. Sie ist die erste, die außerhalb Japans RKK beitritt. Daraus entsteht Rissho Kosei-kai of Hawai'i.
Webpräsenz: http://rkhawaii.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-10
"Dec 1951 Mrs. Tomoko Ozaki while living in Kona, Hawaii was initiated into Rissho Kosei-kai by her former schoolteacher in Japan, Mr. Kanshichi Suzuki. She then became the first member to join RKK outside of Japan. Mrs. Ozaki and her husband Susumu, worked as coffee farmers and began spreading the teachings to their family, neighbors, friends and fellow coffee farmers during the work day. Mr. and Mrs. Eizo Moriguchi (Mr. & Mrs. Ozaki’s neighbors) were the first Kona Chapter members of Kona. (Kona is located on the island of Hawaii, nicknamed The Big Island). Mrs. Masue Kalakaua (Mrs. Ozaki’s mother) was the first Wailuku Chapter member of Maui. 1952 Mrs. Kei Kimizuka (Mrs. Ozaki’s cousin) was the first Honolulu Chapter member of Oahu. Oahu members first met at Mrs. Kimizuka’s home to learn about RKK.
Jun 1958 Found Nikkyo Niwano of RKK Japan visited Hawaii on their way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Japanese Immigrants to Brazil. He and Rev. Motoyuki Naganuma were welcomed by 15 members of Hawaii with Mrs. Ozaki at the Honolulu International Airport. He traveled to Kona to visit the place where Mr. & Mrs. Ozaki planted the first seeds of faith in Hawaii.
Sep 1958 Founder Niwano officially recognized Hawaii as the First Overseas Congregation of Rissho Kosei-kai. He selected District Leader, Mrs. Kazue Yukawa of Japan as a missionary to Hawaii. Mar 1959 Rissho Kosei-kai Hoza Center was opened at Mr. and Mrs. Ozaki’s home in Kona. Mrs. Kazue Yukawa arrived in Kona with the symbol of Faith. Upon Mrs. Yukawa’s arrival, the Oahu members moved from Mrs. Kimizuka’s home to Mrs. Teruko Kimura’s home in Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii. Prior to Mrs. Yukawa’s arrival, Mrs. Ozaki would ask and received guidance by mail from Founder Niwano.
Aug 1959 The Territory of Hawaii was named the 50th State of the United States of America.
Jan 1960 The Divine Mandala Scroll was enshrined in Mrs. Kimura’s new home in Kalihi, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Dec 1964 Founder Niwano and Rev. Nichiko Niwano visited Hawaii on their return trip from India. Hawaii received guidance and encouragement from the Niwano’s to open a Hoza Center in Honolulu.
1965 RKK Hawaii Members first Pilgrimage to Rissho Kosei-kai Japan to further learn the Teachings and Practices of RKK.
Jun 1965 Mrs. Kazue Yukawa retired and Mrs. Tomoko Ozaki was appointed as the second missionary of the RKK Hawaii Kyodan.
Oct 1966 Rissho Kosei-kai of Hawaii was registered with the Regulatory Agency in State of Hawaii.
1968 RKK Hawaii made a second Pilgrimage to Japan to get a firm grasp of the Teachings and Practices of RKK.
Jan 1969 RKK Hawaii was officially recognized as a Branch of RKK Japan. Mrs. Tomoko Ozaki was assigned the duty as the first Reverend of RKK Hawaii. Making her the first American Born Minister of Rissho Kosei-kai.
Jan 1970 RKK Maui was officially recognized as a Branch of RKK Hawaii. Mrs. Jane Taguchi was assigned the duty as their Associate Minister. And the Maui Hoza Center was opened at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Taguchi.
Jun 1971 Reverend Yasutaro Kawate, Liaison of the Overseas Progress arrived to bless the construction site of the church. Construction began soon after the dedication.
Mar 1972 New construction of our Church was completed on the Pearl City site. Founder Niwano enshrines the Statue of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni.
Jun 1972 Founder Niwano attends the Inauguration ceremony in Pearl City
Oct 1976 Mrs. Tomoko Ozaki retires as Reverend of the Hawaii Branches. Reverend Nobukazu Masuda is assigned as the second minister of the Hawaii Churches.
Apr 1977 Rev. Masutaka Uchida attends the 5th Anniversary of the completion of the Honolulu Church.
Aug 1979 President Nichiko Niwano attends the 20th Anniversary of Rissho Kosei-kai in Hawaii.
Feb 1980 Maui Hoza center moved from Mrs. Jane Taguchi’s home to Mrs. Dorothy Tagawa’s Home in Wailuku.
Aug 1980 Renovation and expansion project is completed on our Pearl City church.
Apr 1983 RKK Hawaii Pilgrimage to Japan. 73 members and friends participate.
Apr 1984 Reverend Kinzo Takemura, Director of Overseas Mission of RKK Japan officiates at our 25th Anniversary service.
Dec 1984 Reverend Masuda and his family return to Japan. Reverend Yoshiaki Yamamoto is assigned as the third minister of the Hawaii Churches.
Sep 1985 384 RKK Japan members from the Tokyo district come to Hawaii to attend the commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Japanese Immigration on U.S. and Japan Treaty.
Mar 1988 Rissho Kosei-kai Japan celebrates its 50th Anniversary. RKK Hawaii makes a pilgrimage to RKK Japan.
Mar 1989 Reverend Yasuhiro Saito, Director of RKK Japan attends the 30th Anniversary of Rissho Kosei-kai Hawaii.
Oct 1991 RKK Hawaii attends “GLOBAL SANGHA GATHERING” at RKK Japan.
Mar 1994 RKK Hawaii observes its 35th Anniversary with Reverend Norio Sakai officiating.
Jul 1994 New Construction is completed in Kona. RKK Kona inauguration was celebrated with President Nichiko Niwano enshrining the Statue of the Eternal Buddha.
Jun 1994 RKK Hawaii participates in our first Matsuri Parade, marching down Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki.
Dec 1994 Reverend Yamamoto and his family return to Japan. Reverend Mitsuyuki Okada is assigned as the fourth minister of the Hawaii Churches.
Apr 1995 50 members of RKK Hawaii went to RKK Japan for 2nd World Gathering of the RKK Sangha.
Feb 1997 First MATOI group in Hawaii is formed from RKK Hawaii Youth Group.
Aug 1997 RKK Hawaii Matoi group invited to participate in Los Angeles’ Nisei Week Parade.
Oct 1998 60 members of RKK Hawaii made pilgrimage to Japan to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of RKK Japan and to participate in the Oeshiki parade.
Jul 1999 Kona Branch observes it’s 5th Anniversary of their enshrinement of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni.
Aug 1999 Matoi members travel to Vancouver Canada to participate in a Cultural presentation session under the 13th IARF World congress.
Oct 1999 Founder Nikkyo Niwano enters Nirvana. Reverend Okada, Mrs. Okada and three members from RKK Hawaii attend the funeral of Founder Niwano at the Great Sacred Hall.
Dec 1999 Reverend Okada and his family return to Japan. Reverend Masayuki Idei is appointed as the fifth minister of the Hawaii Churches.
Jun 2000 Kyushu Area churches participate in our Annual Matsuri Parade.
May 2001 Reverend Kinjiro Niwano visits Hawaii for the “LEADERS MISSIONARY ASSEMBLY” held on Oahu, Maui and Kona.
Aug 2001 RKUS and RKK Japan begin a “Joint Youth Seminar” in Kona. Mrs Misako Iguro of Japan provided the use of her Kona home for the Youth Seminar Lodging.
Oct 2001 RKK Hawaii made a pilgrimage to RKK Japan for the third anniversary of Founder Niwano’s entrance into Nirvana and participated in the Ichijo Parade.
2001 Mrs. Dorothy Tagawa and her Family donate their home and property in Wailuku, Maui for the RKK Maui Dharma Center. "
[Quelle: http://rkhawaii.org/rkhihistory.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-10]
Zu 4.3.: Paul Carus (1852-1919)
