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4. The Legal Dimensions of the Formation of Shin Buddhist Temples in Los Angeles
- University of Illinois Press
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4 The Legal Dimensions of the Formation of Shin Buddhist Temples in Los Angeles Michihiro Ama “Reverend Izumida is a Traitor,” read the headline in Rafu Shimpo on September 11, 1917. This was the beginning of the public bashing of this minister in the Los Angeles Japanese press. Attacks on Izumida continued on September 14 and 15 with such headlines as “Clean Up the Place Where a Demon Hides: Throw out Izumida Junjō . . . Save the Buddhist Mission of Los Angeles,” “Advice to Reverend Izumida,” and “Izumida Junjō: Reverend of Traitors and Lost Faith.” These newspaper articles chronicled Izumida Junjō’s protest against the consolidation of three Japanese Buddhist churches in Los Angeles. After an incident in which the Nishi Honganji headquarters tried to consolidate the Rafu Bukkyō-kai (the Buddhist Mission of Los Angeles), the Nanka Bukkyō-kai (the Buddhist Mission of Southern California), and the Chūō Bukkyō-kai (the Central Buddhist Mission) without success, it excommunicated Izumida, who later joined Higashi Honganji. This chapter examines how two kinds of authority, as defined by American legal institutions as opposed to the power exercised by a Japanese organization , were negotiated in a Japanese American Buddhist institution when a minister from Japan came to the United States and built a Buddhist church. A case in point is the incident involving the dispute between Nishi Honganji clergy and laity in Los Angeles centering around Izumida Junjō (1866–1951). Nishi and Higashi Honganji are two major denominations of Jōdo Shinshū (a.k.a Shin Buddhism, a school of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism). A Master Narrative The history of Nishi Honganji on mainland United States begins in San Francisco . In 1897, Hirano Nisaburō, a devout Japanese Buddhist who had im- 66 michihiro ama migrated to California, temporarily returned to Japan and visited the Nishi Honganji headquarters in Kyoto. He requested ministers to be sent to San Francisco, because there was no Buddhist church despite the increasing number of Japanese immigrants in California. In the following year, the headquarters sent Honda Eryū and Miyamoto Ejun to investigate the immigrant’s situations , which Nishi Honganji later considered its beginning of the propagation on the mainland. In September of the following year, it further sent Sonoda Shūye (1863–1922) and Nishijima Kakuryō (1873–1942) to San Francisco as Buddhist “missionaries” (kaikyōshi) with the former given the title of first superintendent (kantoku).1 Subsequently, Nishi Honganji Buddhist churches came to be established in San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Jose. Izumida Junjō (1866–1951) played a major role in establishing a Buddhist group in Los Angeles. He was born in 1866 as the second son of Izumida Hōjō, the resident minister of Anyūji, a Nishi Honganji temple in Nagasaki prefecture, and later moved to Shōrenji in Saga prefecture. Junjō was ordained in 1893 and became a full-fledged minister in 1897. A year later, he taught at Bungaku-ryō (present-day Ryūkoku University) in Kyoto operated by Nishi Honganji. In 1902, Izumida traveled to San Francisco on the recommendation of an administrative minister, Akamatsu Renjō, who later held the highest academic position at the headquarters (kangaku). Inspired by the propagation centers in San Jose and Sacramento, he decided to stay longer on the Pacific coast. He returned home in 1903 and convinced his family and members of Shōrenji of his leaving Japan again. In the following year, he returned to the United States and arrived this time in Los Angeles.2 In 1905, there were roughly 15,000 Japanese in Los Angeles and the population grew yearly until 1917. Due to this rapid increase, a Buddhist church became necessary to serve the immigrants’ needs for funerals, memorial services, and spiritual guidance. In September 1904, Izumida formed a nonsectarian Buddhist group called the Rafu Bukkyō-kai on 229 East Fourth Street. Later, its first building was constructed on South Savannah Street in the city’s Boyle Heights district.3 Records show that soon afterward, two more Buddhist organizations related to Nishi Honganji emerged in Los Angeles. Nanka Bukkyō-kai appeared on Jackson Street in October 1905 and Chūō Bukkyō-kai on 508 Turner Street in October 1912. The Nishi Honganji headquarters appointed Uchida Kōyū (1876–1960) as the acting head minister of the Nanka Bukkyō-kai in 1905. He then succeeded Sonoda and two other interim superintendents and became the fourth superintendent (kantoku) in San Francisco. Uchida organized the propagation of Nishi Honganji as the Buddhist Mission of North America (BMNA) and...