Daifukuji Soto Zen Mission
Encyclopedia
The Daifukuji Sōtō Mission is a Zen Buddhist
temple on the island of Hawaii
established in 1914 .
abbots of Sōtō
temples Eihei-ji
and Sōji-ji
in Japan
. The site is in the area known as Honalo, Hawaii in the Kona district
on the western slopes of Mauna Loa
. Although "white mountain" is a translation in the Hawaiian language
of the name Mauna Kea
, the other main peak on the island of Hawaii
, snow often covers Mauna Loa in winter as well.
Reverend Kaiseki Kodama arrived in 1918 and started construction of the current temple in 1920. On May 27, 1921 a Buddha image was enshrined in the main hall in a dedication ceremony. The temple is a blend of traditional Japanese architectural forms adapted to local Hawaiian building methods. It was designed by first-generation immigrant (Issei
) Yoshisuke Sasaki who owned a store nearby in Keauhou,
and constructed by head carpenter Teruyoshi Ikenouchi and others. Over the next few years living quarters were added, and a Japanese language
school added in 1926, under the third minister, Giko Kanbara and his wife Shigeko Kanbara.
The roof has the traditional Japanese temple style of decorated gable roof called Irimoya
.
Enshrined in the main hall is an image of the historical Gautama Buddha
. To the right is the seated figure of Dōgen
and to the left is Keizan
, founders of the Sōtō Zen tradition. An alcove to the right of the main altar has two more figures: Bodai Daruma Daishi (Bodhidharma
), who carried teachings from India to China, and Daigen Shuri Bosatsu, another bodhisattva
. The Kannon Hall was added in 1937 with an image of Kannon (Guan Yin), the bodhisattva of great compassion, sculpted by Sosaku Miki. To her right and left are 33 smaller Kannon statuettes, representing various manifestations of compassion.
A small cemetery lies uphill from the temple. Although the interior has been remodeled at various times, the original sculptures (including one from 1915) and acacia koa wood altar remain.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor
in 1941 the temple was shut down. Reverend Hozui Nakayama, the minister at the temple was arrested and sent to the mainland as part of the Japanese American internment
. The US Army occupied the site, but allowed lay members of the community to hold funeral services. After World War II
, the temple was re-opened in February 1946. A minister's house was added about 1950.
A small shrine on the steps leading to the temple with a statue of Jizō (Ksitigarbha
) dedicated on May 25, 1961.
It was added as site 10-47-7222 to the state of Hawaii
registry of historic places on March 9, 1991.
It was added as site 94000382 on April 21, 1994 to the National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii
.
The temple became the center of Japanese immigrant society in the Kona area in the 20th century.
A store built just south of the mission by the Teshima family in 1929 became a restaurant in the 1940s. Shizuko Teshima still owned the restaurant in 2009 when she celebrated her 102nd birthday.
It is located at address 79-7241 Mamalahoa Highway (state route 11) on the Kona Heritage Corridor.
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
temple on the island of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
established in 1914 .
History
In 1914 Reverend Kaiseki Kodama arrived in Kona and held services at the former Hanato Store which was located across the street from the present temple. He walked around the entire island twice in order to collect donations to build a temple. In 1915, the first temple, a small thatched structure was built a few hundred yards above and to the north of the present site. It was named Hakuhozan Daifukuji ("Temple of Great Happiness on White Mountain Peak") by the ZenZen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
abbots of Sōtō
Soto
Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...
temples Eihei-ji
Eihei-ji
is one of two main temples of the Sōtō sect of Zen Buddhism. Its founder was Eihei Dōgen. Eihei-ji is located about east of Fukui in Fukui Prefecture, Japan.- History :...
and Sōji-ji
Soji-ji
is one of two main temples of the Sōtō sect of Zen Buddhism. The temple was originally founded in 740 in Noto, but was totally destroyed by fire in 1898. It was rebuilt over a period of several years and reopened in its present location at Tsurumi, Yokohama in 1911. The temple also sustained...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The site is in the area known as Honalo, Hawaii in the Kona district
Kona District, Hawaii
Kona is the name of a moku or district on the Big Island of Hawaii in the State of Hawaii. In the current system of administration of Hawaii County, the moku of Kona is divided into North Kona District and South Kona District . The term "Kona" is sometimes used to refer to its largest town,...
on the western slopes of Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, and the largest on Earth in terms of volume and area covered. It is an active shield volcano, with a volume estimated at approximately , although its peak is about lower than that...
. Although "white mountain" is a translation in the Hawaiian language
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
of the name Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest...
, the other main peak on the island of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
, snow often covers Mauna Loa in winter as well.
Reverend Kaiseki Kodama arrived in 1918 and started construction of the current temple in 1920. On May 27, 1921 a Buddha image was enshrined in the main hall in a dedication ceremony. The temple is a blend of traditional Japanese architectural forms adapted to local Hawaiian building methods. It was designed by first-generation immigrant (Issei
Issei
Issei is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei , and their grandchildren are Sansei...
) Yoshisuke Sasaki who owned a store nearby in Keauhou,
and constructed by head carpenter Teruyoshi Ikenouchi and others. Over the next few years living quarters were added, and a Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
school added in 1926, under the third minister, Giko Kanbara and his wife Shigeko Kanbara.
The roof has the traditional Japanese temple style of decorated gable roof called Irimoya
Irimoya
A xieshan style or roof in Japanese architecture is a hip roof integrated on two opposing sides with a gable. It can be also described in English as a hip-and-gable, gablet, or Dutch gable roof...
.
Enshrined in the main hall is an image of the historical Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. To the right is the seated figure of Dōgen
Dogen
Dōgen Zenji was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Kyōto, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there...
and to the left is Keizan
Keizan
-Biography:Keizan Jōkin 螢山紹瑾 , also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi, was the second of the great founders of the Sōtō Zen sect in Japan. While Dōgen Zenji, as founder of Japanese Sōtō, is known as , Keizan is often referred to as Taiso , or Greatest Patriarch...
, founders of the Sōtō Zen tradition. An alcove to the right of the main altar has two more figures: Bodai Daruma Daishi (Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...
), who carried teachings from India to China, and Daigen Shuri Bosatsu, another bodhisattva
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...
. The Kannon Hall was added in 1937 with an image of Kannon (Guan Yin), the bodhisattva of great compassion, sculpted by Sosaku Miki. To her right and left are 33 smaller Kannon statuettes, representing various manifestations of compassion.
A small cemetery lies uphill from the temple. Although the interior has been remodeled at various times, the original sculptures (including one from 1915) and acacia koa wood altar remain.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in 1941 the temple was shut down. Reverend Hozui Nakayama, the minister at the temple was arrested and sent to the mainland as part of the Japanese American internment
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
. The US Army occupied the site, but allowed lay members of the community to hold funeral services. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the temple was re-opened in February 1946. A minister's house was added about 1950.
A small shrine on the steps leading to the temple with a statue of Jizō (Ksitigarbha
Ksitigarbha
Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism, usually depicted as a Buddhist monk in the Orient. The name may be translated as "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix", or "Earth Womb"...
) dedicated on May 25, 1961.
It was added as site 10-47-7222 to the state of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
registry of historic places on March 9, 1991.
It was added as site 94000382 on April 21, 1994 to the National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii
National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii
This is a list of properties and districts on the island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The island is coterminous with Hawaii County, the state's only county that covers exactly one island...
.
The temple became the center of Japanese immigrant society in the Kona area in the 20th century.
A store built just south of the mission by the Teshima family in 1929 became a restaurant in the 1940s. Shizuko Teshima still owned the restaurant in 2009 when she celebrated her 102nd birthday.
It is located at address 79-7241 Mamalahoa Highway (state route 11) on the Kona Heritage Corridor.
See also
- Byodo-In TempleByodo-In TempleThe Temple is a non-denominational Buddhist temple located on the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i at the Valley of the Temples. At 47-200 Kahekili Highway, the Byodo-In Temple is a replica of a 900-year-old Buddhist place of worship at Uji in Kyoto prefecture of Japan. Inside the Byodo-In Temple is a...
- Broken Ridge Buddhist TempleBroken Ridge Buddhist TempleBroken Ridge Buddhist Temple is a Korean Buddhist temple on the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Originally known as the "Dae Won Sa Temple," it was constructed on King St in Honolulu in 1975. After being destroyed by fire, construction of the new temple located in the Palolo Valley...
- Hawaii Shingon MissionHawaii Shingon MissionHawaii Shingon Mission or Shingon Shu Hawaii located at 915 Sheridan Street in Honolulu, Hawaii, is one of the most elaborate displays of Japanese Buddhist temple architecture in Hawaii...
- Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawai'iHonpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawai'iThe Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii is a district of the Nishi Hongwanji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, a school of Mahayana Pure Land Buddhism.-History:...