REL 141g Fall 2018: Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple

Center view of the main hall  The interior of the temple is very intricate and composed of several different components that all have deep meaning to Buddhism. Starting with the Hondo, or the main hall, it is composed of two areas which are the Najin(altar) and the Gejin (seating area). The altar in a Jodo Shinshu temple is a symbol of the beauty of the Pure Land, which we learned in our Wednesday night study session at the temple is the world of enlightenment and is filled with ornateness and beauty. Contrastingly, the seating area is plain and deliberately is void of any decoration as it represents the world we live in.  Close view of the altar There are also various scrolls in the temple that have a specific meaning. The scroll pictured below shows a phrase that members are encouraged to recite that conveys a spiritual mirror for one's awakening. 

Higashi Honganji is a temple that is truly welcome to all. While there might not be advertisement to those who are not practitioners of the faith, the doors are open to potential new members or scholars who are curious to learn more. Our group was graciously met by a class on a Wednesday night that was in the middle of a study group that we sat in on. While the group was learning about Genshin, a famous Buddhist who was scolded for bringing his mother a gift, they paused and took time to explain to us so much about the religion and the culture. We learned that all Buddhist teachings are translated from Chinese and that Pure Land is synonymous with enlightenment. We received the Tibetan wheel of life, which depicts impermanence and a path to Samsara. The study group was so willing to share their own personal narratives and paths to and through the faith, and we felt comfortable asking them questions that helped build this project out to what it is. We learned so much abo...

Professor Williams is a scholar of Shin Buddhism who gave a lecture in Professor Soni's class on September 19th, 2018.  One of my biggest takeaways from professor Williams' lecture was a formula he provided our class that provided a major framework for the Buddhist religion: Wisdom + Compassion = Liberation/Freedom. Every school of Buddhism has a 2,5000+ year history of teaching wisdom over ignorance, because suffering comes from ignorance. Though particular to our research project, Higashi Honganji does not boast a high volume of non-Asian temple goers. However, approximately 1/3 of American Buddhists are non-Asian. Additionally, Buddhism is spread throughout the United States with predominant populations in San Francisco and Hawaii. One tradition that started in Hawaii is the lantern ceremony in Waikiki, where nearly 50,000 people light floating lanterns into the sea. A major discussion we had with Professor Williams was about Japanese-American life during World War II...

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Higashi Honganji Temple has served the Buddhist community in Little Tokyo as Reverand Junjyo Izumida established the first Japanese Buddhist temple in Los Angeles in 1904. The temple relocated several times but came back to its original location in Little Tokyo in 1976. It contains beautiful architecture with a traditional roof with over 30,000 tiles imported from Japan, a large and well maintained Japanese garden, lanterns in the main chapel, and many other intricate Buddhist art throughout the temple grounds. Photo of the temple in the early 1900s Recent photo with outdoor Japanese Garden The temple has always been an integral part of the Japanese community in Little Tokyo as it functions more than just fulfilling communal religious needs. For example, it housed the first judo-kendo dojo in Los Angeles as well as serving as a Japanese language school and orphanage, filling key needs during Japanese internment in the US....

As passing generations of Japanese Americans have become more and more Americanized, branch membership at the Higashi Honganji has faced both steady and sharp decline in recent years. To combat this trend, the Higashi Honganji has adopted new services to appeal to the newest generation of Japanese Americans and their families, including several new doctrines and practices which have been frowned upon by a number of Japan’s Buddhist bishops, such as promoting meditation as a means to achieve enlightenment. Despite this disapproval, however, the temple also recognized early on that it could not sustain membership in the long-run and survive on a solely Japanese or Japanese-American base of membership, and has since then tried to offer more services which are likely to be more appealing to Americans of all ages, genders, races, and levels of income. Examples of some services tailored to a more Westernized audience which are unique to the American branch of the Higashi Honganji are: ...

Interview Profiles Higashi Honganji Minister The first interview that I conducted during my site visit was with one of the ministers of the special DISC service. The temple was having a large off-site event on this day, which allowed me to spend more one on one time with the minister. Prior to answering any of my research questions, he asked that I participate in the service, given that the crowd was so small. He had me throw sage into a burning pot and had me listen to the Japanese scripture being read out loud. He then translated each of the lines into English for me so that I was better able to understand why some of the lines were meaningful to the service. Following the service, he then said: "okay, you can ask your questions, but only the short ones". My first question related to how he became involved in Buddhism,  and so my short question was met with a lengthy answer. He responded with: "I worked in the corporate world until I was 45, and ...