Dixie Dharma: Inside a Buddhist Temple in the American South

2. The Gift of Light: Buddhist Circuit Riders and New Religious Developments in Richmond, Virginia

Sure enough, it must be admitted that there is religious diversity in the South. —David Edwin Harrell Jr., “Religious Pluralism: Catholics, Jews, and Sectarians,” Religion in the South, 1985 Chapter Two THE GIFT OF LIGHT Buddhist Circuit Riders and New Religious Developments in Richmond,Virginia Many of the houses along Grove Avenue fly flags—the star-spangled banner , the Virginia state flag, banners with animals or floral designs, as well as the occasional Confederate battle flag. So the five-colored flag sometimes flown outside Ekoji Buddhist Sangha of Richmond does not seem to attract much attention from passersby. But this is not simply a variation on the rainbow motif—the stripes of blue, yellow, red, white, and orange form the pattern of the so-called Buddhist Flag, a design originating in the Buddhist revival of nineteenth-century Ceylon and now used by a wide variety of Buddhist groups.1 To the uninitiated it is simply colorful, but to insiders, it is a clue that something special goes on inside. Ekoji, the case study that I use for exploring the idea of American Buddhist regionalism in this book, shares much in common with Buddhist centers in other parts of the United States, and yet wewill also see that regional considerations and impacts are far from incidental. This chapter recounts Ekoji’s founding, and briefly describes the convoluted history of the different groups that have used the space. I then provide a general description of the temple’s layout, background material that serves as the launching point for chapter 3, where I focus on the five established groups currently sharing Ekoji, and consider the particular uses each makes of the space. A THE GIFT OF LIGHT 48 further concern of this chapter is to introduce Reverend Takashi Kenryu Tsuji, the founder of Ekoji.2 The work he did to establish a temple in Richmond exemplifies how Buddhism attempts to enter the South. And he is a fascinating figure emblematic of an important type of American Buddhist who has been largely left out of the mainstream narratives of the field: the modernist Shin priest.3 I present additional information about Richmond and Buddhism in the South in chapter 5, as part of my specifically regional analysis. History of Ekoji The story of Ekoji begins in 1981, when the Reverend Takashi Kenryu Tsuji, recently retired bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA), moved toVirginia to spread Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in the Southeast.4 The Buddhist Churches of America is the oldest Buddhist organization in the United States—it was founded in San Francisco in 1899 and until World War II was known as the Buddhist Mission of North America. While individual whites and African Americans have played important roles in the BCA’s history, the denomination’s base has always come from Japanese immigrants who began arriving on the West Coast in the late nineteenth century and their descendents. Despite its status as the largest Buddhist denomination in Japan, the oldest form of organized Buddhism in the United States, and one of the largest forms of Buddhism in America, Jodo Shinshu (Shin Buddhism) is poorly represented on the East Coast, where Japanese immigration has been relatively minimal.5 After establishing a temple (also named Ekoji) in Northern Virginia, Tsuji was persuaded by several people in Richmond to start a second temple.6 Beginning in 1984 he made trips to Richmond, conducting services in people’s homes or at the Richmond Friends Meetinghouse .7 In June 1985 a house in western Richmond at 3411 Grove Avenue was purchased through the assistance of the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation.8 By September the temple had been accepted as an affiliate member of the BCA, although it had not yet opened for regular services.9 The official dedication of the temple took place on May 17, 1986, at a ceremony presided over by the then-current bishop of the BCA, the Reverend Seigen H. Yamaoka.10 Ekoji’s first president, Mark Jacinto, made a speech reminding listeners that “Buddhism is universal and maintains no discriminatory boundaries.”11 While the ceremony itself was brief, the import of the event impressed itself on many. As one observer noted, “You 49 THE GIFT OF LIGHT know that you are the first non-Japanese, totally American, Shinshu temple in the U.S.This is more than a statistic—you all can determine the future of Buddhism in the...