Nichiren Archbishop to visit Hilo, Ka‘u

The Rev. Nisso Uchino, kancho geika, the chief abbot of Minobu-san Kuonji Temple in Minobu Prefecture, Japan, will visit Hilo and Ka‘u on Saturday.

His visit celebrates the 110th anniversary of the establishment of Nichiren Shu Buddhism in Hawaii, and is the first such visit at the present temple, built in 1965.

Short commemorative services will be at 10 a.m., at the Nichiren Shu Mission, 24 Makalika St., Hilo, in the temple and at the adjacent shrine of Shichimen Daimyojin.

Archbishop Uchino and his traveling companions, about 70 priests and followers, also from Japan, will then go to Wood Valley Temple near Pahala to dedicate a monument at 1:30 p.m. to the first Nichiren mission in Hawaii, begun there in 1902.

The Nichiren Mission of Hawaii temple in Honolulu was established in 1912.

“This is the first visit by an archbishop to this island since 1964; it is a very rare event and a tremendous honor,” said the Rev. Hosho Sugawara of the Hilo mission.

The Nichiren Shu congregation began at Wood Valley to serve sugar plantation workers. As production mechanized and dwindled, many of the unemployed moved to Hilo, where Bishop Kanryu Mochizuki approved reorganization as Hilo Nichiren Mission on April 1, 1959.

Nechung Dorje Drayang Ling Retreat Center uses the original temple.

“We really appreciate Tibetan’s Wood Valley Temple, because there is no doubt that without the Tibetan’s renovation and maintenance of the temple, it would have been buried in bushes and weeds and would have eventually disappeared into the ground,” said Sugawara.

“When we look up at the mandala written by the late Bishop Murano in the main hall of the existing Tibetan temple, we somehow feel relieved that the dharma continues to exist there despite the change in ownership.”

For further information, please call Sugawara at 959-8894.