Happy New Year!
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu
Buddhist Year 2566
Common Era 2023
Year of the Wood Rabbit
A gathering at the temple with Amida Buddha as its center provides a great opportunity to receive the Dharma as well as an occasion in which people can support and reassure one another as fellow practicers who follow the same teaching.
Gomonshu Kojun Ohtani
When I was a child, the New Year was all about having to go back to school, thinking of the Christmas toys I had already broken and how many mochis I would get to eat that day. My Mom tried to restrict me to six mochi on New Year Day, two at Bachan’s (Grandma) in the morning, two at her Mom’s at lunch and two more at dinner back at Bachan’s. Although back when I was young, Santa only brought us one toy and my parents might get me a couple of smaller toys. Thinking about it now, I must have been a pretty good kid, because Santa always brought me a present on Christmas morning. Thinking back through the years, it wasn’t a long list of toys, like so many kids now (my kids included). I bet I could ask my kids about their Christmas presents and they wouldn’t remember very many, because there were too many to remember! I can remember most of my Santa-given presents: Johnny Seven, the one-man army (a gun that had seven guns in one) and complete army uniform, a toy drum set, a Johnny Reb Canon (a toy civil war canon) with a rebel hat7, Tiger Joe remote control tank, a Caravelle radio set with microphone, a pair of walkie talkies. These are the toys I remember from the age of about 5-10. I do remember in 1977, my dad bought me an Atari game system. That was one of those presents I will always remember, like my purple five speed stick shift Schwinn sting ray. There were other toys I remember such as my King Zoar Dragon, which was given to me by Mrs. Mary Nakai. Those of you at the Idaho Oregon Buddhist Temple might know her as Alice Tsukamaki’s sister. I wrote another story about King Zoar called “the Princess and the Dragon”. I can’t blame you for not remembering the story, this year is my 30th year as the minister of the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple, 24th year for Ogden and Honeyville and 7th or 8th for the Idaho Oregon Buddhist Temple. I’m not sure how many years with BCA HQ, because before becoming the CBE director, I was co director before that and Bishop Umezu’s executive assistant for 8 years and on the executive committee for 8 years as Ministers’ Association Gicho. During that time I have written 100s of articles, if you remember one of them, I will be happy.
Getting back to New Year morning, we would go to my Hirano Bachan’s and Jichan’s for Ozoni (Mochi soup) and the first meal of the New Year. Back then there was no Joya E or Shusho E services at the temple. This first meal at Bachan’s was amazing. I still wonder how my she could make so many types of foods. I’m not exaggerating at all. I remember one year; she cooked two turkeys on top of all the Japanese New Year foods, I have difficulty cooking one for Thanksgiving. Even when I lived in Japan, I never saw the amount and variety of foods she would cook: Ozoni, inari sushi, futomaki sushi, sashimi, a large Tai (type of fish), shrimp, squid, octopus, Onishime vegetables and chicken, black beans, lima beans, maze gohan (like sushi rice without any wrapper), and the turkey and ham. It was amazing! She would also have enough for three settings of all these dishes, the morning one for our family, the lunch one for friends and guests and the evening one for family and friends. In between the morning and evening, we would go to my Grandma Kawaguchi’s in Bingham, for my Mom’s side of the family gathering. There was always a lot of food there too. I especially liked Grandma’s Shizuoka style ozone and inari sushi, but her feast was not like Bachan Hirano’s. I doubt I will ever see that again.
Bachan would also cook the Japanese New Year foods for at least five other families. They would stop by on New Year’s Eve throughout the day. To accomplish this cooking feat, she would cook for at least one full week. Dad said she would barely sleep and use about 50 pounds of rice, 20 pounds of sugar and close to five gallons of shoyu. I think one year, dad said she made like 300 or 400 inari sushi and 100 rolls of futomaki. Bachan’s house on New Year’s morning would just be my family: Bachan, Jichan, Dad, Mom, Joni and myself, the Furubayashis, Auntie Maxine, Uncle Mas, Sandy, Glen, Mike and Scott. These twelve people are still who I consider my family. I know many of you are thinking, “Sensei left out Carmela.” Well, she is my wife and the stepmother to my daughters and at this moment, she is probably my most important family member and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. However, she is my family member by choice and as I know from past marriages, that can always change!?
The others really don’t have a choice; we are family by birth. These types of family are together no matter what any member may do. Not even with death do we part. Over the years, we have lost some of the original members such as Bachan, Jichan, my parents, Uncle Mas, Auntie Maxine and Glen. However, we now have nieces, nephews, cousins and a variety of interchangeable spouses. I’m just so grateful that we still have our family gatherings: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. This year was a transitional year. Christmas Eve was held at my nephew Ryan and Amanda Sueokas and Christmas Day at Joe and Emily Iwasaki. A changing of the guard? We will see, one year doesn’t make it a tradition. Throughout the year we also have other gatherings such as birthdays, 4th of July and we all try to gather for Obon. You know I hear of people who have disowned or broke off ties with their family. I have always felt so sad when I hear that. I have always felt that my family is my family forever. Not because we were sealed in a temple or for a variety of religious reasons, but because of love, blood and science. I know that I have members from our 12 original family members that are no longer physically with us at the gatherings, but they are still there with us. Not from a ghost of Christmas Past, Present or Future kind of way, but in our blood, in our conversations, in our hearts and minds.
I am not someone who believes in the unchanging nature of religious truth. The Buddhist Teachings were created by humans, thus subject to change. I know this is anathema to other religions and probably many Jodo Shinshu Buddhists, but even this will change. In my family gatherings, we have many people come and go. I look forward to who I will see and meet at our gatherings. I do believe in the saying, “the more, the merrier” when it comes to our family gatherings. As I grow older, I am just grateful that we still come to gather.
As Gomonshu sama (The spiritual head of our sect of Buddhism) says in his New Year’s message, “A gathering at the temple with Amida Buddha as its center provides a great opportunity to receive the Dharma as well as an occasion in which people can support and reassure one another as fellow practicers who follow the same teaching.”
Just as I look forward to my new interchangeable family members at our family gatherings, I look forward to who I will see and meet at our temples’ services. I am grateful that during the pandemic lock downs we were able to meet over Zoom or Facebook Live etc. However, there was something missing. I truly missed the live interaction with other human beings. During this coming year, whoever is reading this article, I hope we will have the opportunity to meet in person. We are part of the Nembutsu family. Namo Amida Butsu becomes a part of our spiritual DNA, just as my blood is a part of my physical DNA.
Thank you for all the support you have shown me and my family over the years and please have a wonderful New Year 2023 filled with laughter, love and Namo Amida Butsu!