Word: masuyama
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Kyoto, Japan, Abbot Otani, head of the sect, blessed a two-foot image of Lord Buddha, carved of wood and covered with eight layers of gold leaf. Last week an envoy of Abbot Otani arrived in San Francisco with the image, turned it over to Rinban, or Bishop, Kenju Masuyama, the Occidental-looking head of some 50,000 U. S. members of the Jodo-shinshu sect...
...Rinban Masuyama is currently busy with plans for a $60,000 temple for his San Francisco flock, to contain in its cornerstone a pinch of Buddha's ancient ashes and 50,000 lotus petals. Turning temporarily from his plans, the little Japanese took the gold Buddha down to Fresno, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. There Rinban Masuyama gave the statue to a Fresno priest named Enryo Shigefuji, and spent the weekend elevating Fresno's two-story, pagoda-roofed Temple to the status of San Francisco's that of Betsu-in or chief...
...Balaric In the Temple, priests chanted, incense fumed as the statue was enthroned. That evening, with more chanting and with the congregation praying with 108-beaded Ojuzus, or prayer-strings, the Temple was made a Betsu-in and bespectacled Priest Shigefuji became a Rinban of equal rank with Rinban Masuyama. Next morning a Hana-matsuri, or flower festival, took place in honor of Buddha's 2,50311! birthday (April 8), with the two Rinbans pouring sweet water on the gold statue in commemoration of the legend that sweet rain fell when Buddha was born. Finally, at Fresno High School...
Before the ornate altar of a Buddhist temple in a Tacoma side street, Julius Goldwater, one of the 50 white Buddhist priests in the U. S., intoned: "This candi date desires ordination." Red-robed Bishop Kenju Masuyama, head of all Buddhist temples in North America, placed a kesa (stole) around the neck of yellow-robed Mrs. Pratt. Chanted she: "I take my refuge in Buddha. I take my refuge in Dharma. I take my refuge in Sangha." Thus Mrs. Pratt entered the life of Upasika Bhikum ("Utmost Perfection of Womanly Virtue"). Taking a new name, Teiun, she continued...
Most Buddha relics are in Siam and in Japan's great shrine at Mt. Hiei. Buddhists attach no miracle-working powers to them. When Bishop Masuyama arrived in San Francisco on the Taiyo Maru, he and the precious bonelet were escorted by numerous Buddhists to their drab, unimposing Temple at Pine and Octavia Streets. All the Buddhists meditated quietly. Then the Bishop took Buddha's bone to his nearby home where, because of its great value, he planned to keep it until a suitable new temple might be built...