Happy New Year - Buddhist Church of Oakland

B U D D H I S T C H U R C H O F O A K L A N D

BUSSHIN JANUARY 2009

Minister’s MessageBY REVEREND HARRY GYOKO BRIDGE

VOLUME 52 NUMBER 1

To the members of the BuddhistChurch of Oakland:

What an honor to be able to intro-duce myself! To many of you, it is areintroduction, as I did my internshipat your Church in the late 1990s. ButI have changed in various ways aswell, so in a way it is a brand newintroduction.

I am Harry Gyokyo Bridge, and I amin my third year as a minister for theBuddhist Churches of America. I wasborn in Tokyo, but moved to theBoston area with my parents when Iwas one year old. However, my father’swork took us back to Japan, so I livedthere again for six years, attendingjunior high and high school at theAmerican School in Japan.

Interestingly enough, during thosesix years I only encountere dBuddhism once, and it held no inter-est for me, perhaps because it was ZenBuddhism and meditation. It wasn’tuntil college that I “discovere d ”Buddhism, and when I went back toJapan for a semester I took some class-es and began a journey that wouldlead to study at the Institute ofBuddhist Studies in Berkeley andRyukoku University in Kyoto.

I should also introduce my wife,M i k a. Many times people assume thatwe met while I was studying in Japan,but we actually met in Berkeley! Shebecame acquainted with Eisho Nasu

Minister’s Message 1

Happy New Year 1

BCO General Meeting 2

Ho On-Ko Service 2

Temple Tidbits 2

Ashland Howakai 2

Dharma School News 3

Nippongo Gakuen News 3

Keirokai Photos 4

Jr YBA News 4

January Shotsuki Service 6

Calendar

IN THIS ISSUE

Happy New YearBY REVEREND SEIGEN YAMAOKA

May the Year of the OX bringmuch meaning to each and

every one of you.With the end of the Year 2008, my

44 years of ministry with the BuddhistChurches of America and the final 12years of ministry at the BuddhistChurch of Oakland officially comes toan end. Shigeko and I express ourheartfelt gratitude to each and everyone of you for allowing us to be a partof your lives. Our gratitude inNembutsu is deeply felt.

Though I will be with you for thefirst two weeks of January, I will behere as a Supervising Minister awaitingthe arrival of Rev. Harry and MikaBridge, who will be with you fromJanuary 15. I hope you will extendyour kindness and support as theybegin to share the Dharma with youfor the years ahead.

In life, we are taught that life is con-stantly moving and changing. We areall a part of this flow of universal truth.

Thank you for your kindness andsupport and it gives me great pleasureto pass the baton of the Dharma toRev. Harry Bridge.

Reflection: The winds of change con-stantly blow and move our lives. Yet, if weflow with the wind we can feel the deepmeaning of the gratitude for life.

continued on next page


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Temple Tid-Bits

OSONAE AND FLOWERSThe families of the following

have offered flower and osonae fortheir memorial service:

Ms. Kido Baba for father Mr.Takashi Baba

Mr. Akio Aochi for mother Mrs.Yoneko Aochi

Mrs. Fumi Soga for husband Mr.George Soga

Mrs. Tomoko Endo for husbandMr. Goro Endo

The church appreciates yourthoughtfulness and generosity.

BCO GeneralMeeting & NewYear’s Party

Last Minute Reminder2008 Membership dues should be

received before the year ends. If youhave forgotten, please send it in now.

Ho On-Ko Service

On January 18, 2009, we willobserve HoOnKo, the service

to remember, honor and express ourappreciation to Shinran Shonin forleading us to the Nembutsu,NamoAmidautsu. The service starts at10:00 am and our guest speaker willbe Rev. Eijun Kujo, BCA MinisterEmeritus, from San Mateo. Let’s allcome out to hear Rev. Kujo’s message.A dana envelope has been attached tothe Busshin for your consideration.

The general Meeting of theBuddhist Church of Oakland

will be held on February 8, 2009 at10:45 am following the FamilyService and installation of the NewOfficers of the Board of Directors. Allchurch affiliated organizations shouldp re p a re their annual activities andfinancial reports and send them to thechurch office by January 14, 2009.Special Fund’s chairpersons shouldalso send their reports to the office byJanuary 14. The New Year Party fol-lows the meeting at 12:00 pm.

and Lisa Grumbach while L i s a was avisiting scholar in Kyoto in the early2000s, and came to Berkeley for a visit.I took her to San Francisco and theGolden Gate Bridge, and we met againseveral times over the next year or so.We were married in June of 2006.

While in the Master’s Program atRyukoku I received Tokudo andKyoshi, and returned to the UnitedStates in 2006 to begin my ministerialcareer. I have happily spent the pasttwo and a half years as the ResidentMinister for the Buddhist Church ofLodi. Although it is very sad to leaveLodi, I am also very excited to moveback to the San Francisco Bay Area,and what’s more, to be back at theBuddhist Church of Oakland!

There is so much more that I couldsay, but I will finish by briefly outlin-ing my approach to Buddhism. I wasn’tb rought up Buddhist, everything Iknow about it grows out of the inter-est that was sparked during college. Ihave investigated various types ofBuddhism, but Jodo Shinshu is theschool that called out to me. I try torespect and follow the unique doc-trines of Shinshu, but at the same timerecognize that we need to approach itfrom our 21st century perspective.

I am really looking forward to serv-ing the Buddhist Church of Oakland,and look forw a rd to meeting all of you, whether again or for the first time!

In gassho,Harry Gyokyo Bridge

Minister’s Messagecontinued from previous page

Ashland HowakaiBY YUTAKA KOBORI,

October Family Service

The monthly family service wasconducted by Rev. Seigen Yamaoka atthe Eden Township JapaneseCommunity Center on Sundayevening, October 19th, with M r s .Dorothy Yanagi as service chairper-son. Our usual monthly potluck din-ner followed the service.

The receipt of Dana from the fol-lowing individuals is acknowledgedwith appreciation:

Mr. Yutaka KoboriM/M Fred MiyamotoM/M Shig NaitoM/M Ben NakayaMrs. Sylvia NomuraM/M James TsuruiMrs. Dorothy YanagiM/M Shichiro YokomizoThe receipt of Dana from the family

of the late Emiko Miyamura is acknowl-edged (late) with appreciation.

DEADLINE FOR FEBRUARY 2009 BUSSHIN

ARTICLES: January 5th

A rticles submitted after thisdate may not be printed. Senda rt i c l e s to Joyce Yokomizo:

email: [email protected] fax: (415) 970-0810 You can also send articles to

Sam Yo n e y a m a at the churc hoffice.

BUSSHIN COLLATION by theB o a rd on Thursday, January 15t h

at 7:30 p.m.


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Dharma School News…BY JANET UMEZU

Good- bye 2008. Where has thetime flown?

The Dharma School students had achance to say thank you and happyre t i rement to Rev. Yamaoka o nNovember 23 at a pizza luncheon afterthe Family Dharma School service. TheJr YBA started off with a humorous skitreenacting lessons taught by Sensei.Reminding everyone, that Buddhism ise v e ry w h e re and what it means to live aTriple A life - a life of Aw a re n e s s ,Authenticity and Appreciation. Yo utaught our students well Sensei. R e v .Y a m a o k a was then treated to a choru sof students singing, It’s a Small Wo r l d ”and “Sayonara”. In conclusion, theD h a rma School presented R e v .Y a m a o k a with a photo album andw o rds of appreciation from each of theD h a rma School Families. The Dharm aSchool wishes Rev. and Mrs. Yamaokaa very Happy Retirement and a very bigthank you for all the support and guid-ance you have given the familiest h roughout your tenure at BCO.

Also thank you to Maya Lawrencefor organizing the luncheon andentertainment. Thank you also goes toMolly Yoneyama and Janet Umezu forkeeping everyone organized in thekitchen. A special thank you to ourparent chefs: Gary Lawrence, GregNakamura, Ron Nomura, Tak Otsukaand Jon Takagaki for helping bake thepizza and clean up in the kitchenafterward.

As the year comes to the end, wegratefully acknowledge all those whohave supported the Dharma Schoolthrough contributions. For this monththey are:

M/M Dick Sasaki - Birth ofGranddaughter Averia Helen Ito

Sylvia Nomura - KeiroKai gift appre-ciation

Alice Neishi - Keiro Kai gift appreci-atiion

M/M Mark Shimamoto - Tae Li’sbirthday

Mrs. I. Uota - Grandson Kai Oran’sbirthday

M/M Steve Terusaki - Kevin’s birth-day

Ron Fujii of Fujii Melons - Grapesfor Family Conference and grapes andtangerines for Rev. Yamaoka’s Lunch

Happy Birt h d a yto the JanuaryBabies: K oCostarella, MatthewLi, Kenji Okamura-W o n g, De n i s e

T o y o f u k u, Kyle Wong and R y a nWong. Birthday Sunday will be cele-brated on January 4, 2009.

In conclusion, so long 2008 andhello 2009. The Dharma School wish-es everyone a very happy holiday anda very happy new year.

Nippongo Gakuen NewsBY KUMIKO IWASHITA

Students at Nippongo Gakuencontinued to learn Japanese this

November in their individual classes.A kindergartner who spoke very littleJapanese at the beginning of thesemester now can say names of colorssuch as “??? (red)” and “??? (white)”and can draw Hiragana very neatly inYamada Sensei’s class.

In Aizawa Sensei’s class, students arel e a rning to read and write Hiragana,Katakana and some Kanji. They are alsol e a rning to construct simple conversa-

tions, including self introductions. Thegoal of this class is to become pro f i c i e n tin basic conversations while buildingv o c a b u l a ry and learning basic Japaneseg r a m m a r. Aizawa Sensei i n c o r p o r a t e svarious aspects of Japanese culture inher instructions.

Fall is a busy season for many stu-dents. Saturdays are often days whenthey have other extracurricular activi-ties such as basketball and soccer.Many have made great efforts to keepup with their Japanese studies while

November birthdays.

continued on next page


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balancing other activities. There is, ofcourse, continuous support by theirfamily members. The Pare n tAssociation Board of the Gakuenappreciates the support of and effortsby all involved.

Nippongo Gakuen Newscontinued from previous page

Jr. YBA NewsBY LYNNE TAKAGAKI

November was a very fun packedmonth for Jr. YBA. To start it

off, some of us attended the 3rd annu-al Bay District Family Confere n c ehosted at the Palo Alto BuddhistChurch. It was very enjoyable and wewere able to see many people that wed o n ’t see very often. One of thefavorites among the crowd wasReverend Taniguchi’s rajio taisho.

The next big event was the much-anticipated 50th Annual Central CalConference. For a few, it was their firstJr. YBA conference. Oakland even puton a skit for the talent show. Althoughwe didn’t place, it was a lot of fun top e rf o rm. Thank you to M i h a r uOkamura who wrote the script for therest of us!

Due to the conference, many of usw e re not able to attend R e v e r e n dYamaoka’s retirement party at Scott’s.We were fortunate to be able to showour appreciation at the Dharma Schoolparty the following week. There, weperformed yet another skit (thanksagain to M i h a r u) and showed ourknowledge of the infamous 3 As( A p p reciation, Authenticity, andAwareness).

We would like to take a briefmoment to thank all who helped usthis month. Thank you to Miharu forwriting the awesome skits. Also, thankyou to our conference advisors BonnieOkamura and Linda Takagaki.

Keirokai

New Members


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Keirokai


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January Shotsuki Memorial ServiceService: Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. Sermon by Reverend Seigen Yamaoka

Family and relatives are invited to attend this monthly memorial service for those listed below. If any errors appear in thelist below, please notify the church office at (510) 832-5988 at your earliest convenience. Next month’s Shotsuki

Service will be held on February 1, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.

Mrs. Haruko Ajari Mrs. Emi S. Calkins – 3rd YearMrs. Masumi Deguchi Mr. Shichigoro Doi Mr. Ichiro Endo Mrs. Fumiko Fujii Mr. Tom Fujimoto – 17th Year Mrs. Shizue FuruyamaMr. Kenji Hayashida – 17th YearMrs. May Hayashida Mr. Jun Hiramatsu Mr. George Hoshide – 17th YearMr. Takeshi IkedaMr. Dean Inokuchi Mr. George K. Inouye Mr. Masao Inouye Mr. John Itoda Mr. Kusuichi Kamada Mrs. Tamie Kamada Mr. Tatsuo KanagakiMr. Norikazu Kaneko Mrs. Chiyono Kanzaki – 13th YearMr. Tsurunosuke Kase – 33rd YearMrs. Marian Kato Mr. Harry Kawabata Mr. Kamenosuke KawabeMr. Kanjuro KawabeMr. Charles Kawasaki Mrs. Pauline Kawasaki Mrs. Sadano KayataniMr. Ikuzo Kido Mrs. Yuri Kido Mr. Hajime Kihara Kihara Ke SenzoMr. Hisao KimuraMr. Kojiro KimuraMr. Tanegusu Kimura Mrs. Toku KimuraMrs. Suna Kinoshita Mr. Suyematsu Kitagaki Mr. Shuntaro Kiyota Mr. Yoshio Kobata

Mrs. Konami Kobori Mrs. Shizue KoyamaMr. Shigenobu Kuramoto Mrs. Tsuru Kuwa Mrs. Kuniko Masuda Mrs. Sueme Masuoka Mrs. Urae MiyamotoMrs. Fujie MizusakiMiss Tomiko MizukiMr. Sunao Mizuki – 50th YearMrs. Kayo Murakami Mrs. Yoshita MurakawaMr. Jitsujiro Nakahara Mrs. Kichi Nakahara Mr. Seijiro NakanishiMrs. Fusa Nakano Mrs. Chizuko Nakashima Mrs. Yoshiye Nakatani Mr. Fujio Narasaki Mr. Tagaichi NegiMrs. Tomiko Neishi Mr. Jakusho Nitta Mrs. Violet Nobori Mr. Dick Nomura – 33rd YearMr. Frank G. Norimoto Mr. Suekichi Ochikubo Mr. James Y. Ogawa Mrs. Kato OkaiMrs. Yuki OkawaMrs. Kiku OkawaMrs. Otono OkawachiMr. Yoshio George Oto Mr. Joe OtsukaMr. John Reimer Mrs. Kikue SakamotoMr. Jingoro SasakiMr. Gunbei Sasaki Mr. Fumio Sasaki Mr. Hisaka Sasaki Mrs. Ishino Sasaoka Mrs. Otome SatakeMr. Yayoichi Satake

Mrs. Tomie Satake Mrs. Ura Sawada Mr. Ben Toshio SeijiMrs. Shizuko Seiji Mr. David Shigematsu Mrs. Toku Shimamoto Mrs. Kiyoko Shimao Mrs. Fumiye Shinomoto Mrs. Kume Shiozaki Ms. Wendy Shiroma Mr. Miles Suda Mr. Kenji Suzuki – 3rd YearMr. Osamu Takahashi Mrs. Hazue Takeda Mr. Kohki TakedaMr. Yoshihiro Tamori Mrs. Tomiko Tamura Mr. Tamotsu Tani Mr. Hisaichi Taniguchi Mrs. Tsuneno Tanisawa – 50th YearMrs. Fumi TororaMr. Hisajiro Tsuboi Mr. Mareyo Tsuchiya Mr. Takenori Tsuchiyua Mr. Genkichi Tsujimoto Mr. George Kumao Tsushima Mr. Totaro Umemoto Mrs. Yukie Utsurogi Mr. Hyozo Yamamoto Mr. Kenneth Shigeo Yamamoto Mr. Ted Yamamoto Mr. Kihei YamaneMr. Tsurukichi YamaneMr. Toshio Yamashita Mr. Yosaku Yamashita Mr. Toyotaro YanagiMrs. Tomo Yasukawa Mr. Motomi Yokomizo Miss Shirley Yuto Mr. Toshiyuki Yuto


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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

January 2009

10:00 a.m. Family DharmaService, Adult

Study

10:00 a.m. Family DharmaService, Adult

Study

10:00 a.m.OBWA CypressHouse Project

BusshinArticles Due!

7:30 p.m. BusshinCollating by the

Board

BD Jr. YBA Ski Trip

1:00 p.m.Line Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke

10:00 a.m.Wanto Shodo Kai

1:00 p.m.Line Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke

1:00 p.m.Line Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke


1:00 p.m.Line Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke

11:00 a.mNew Year’s Day

Service9:00 a.m

Japanese School

9:00 a.mJapanese School

1:00 p.mFukuoka

Kenjinkai NewYear Party


11:30 a.m.Gakuen New Year Party

1:30 p.mWanto Hiroshima

NikkeijinKai New YearParty

5:00 p.mBD Jr YBA Mtg



10:00 a.mHo On Ko Service

11:30 a.mWelcome Rev Bridge

Party

6:00 p.mAshland Howakai

10:00 a.mMomiji Kai 10:00 a.m.

OBWA CypressHouse Project


7:00 p.mYouth Club

7:00 p.mFukuoka Sister

City Ass’n

7:00 p.mEBYAL

7:30 p.m Board Meeting

9:00 a.mOBWA Mtg

10:00 a.m.Family Dharma &Shotsuki Service

5:00 p.m.Concord Howakai

New Year Party


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8 9 10 11 12 13 14

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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

February 2009

9:00 a.m.OBWA meeting

10:00 a.m.Bodhi Day and

Shotsuki Service

10:00 a.m.Family Dharma

Service

10:30 a.m.BCO General Mtg

12:00 p.m.New Year Party

10:00 a.m.Family Dharma

Service,Adult Study

6:00 p.m.Ashland Howakai

10:00 a.m.Family Nirvana

Day Service,Lady Kujo

Service, Jr. YBAUdon Lunch

7:30 p.m.Collate Busshin

by DharmaSchool

10:00 a.mMomiji Kai

10:00 a.mMomiji Kai

BusshinArticles Due!

7:30 p.m.Karaoke

1:00 p.m.LIne Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke



7:30 p.m Board Meeting

7:00 p.m.Youth Club Mtg.

12:30 p.m.Wanto

HiroshimaNikkeijin Kai

7:00 p.mEB YAL

7:00 p.mConcordHowakai 9:00 a.m

Japanese School

2:00 p.m.Ikebana




HOLIDAYOffice Closed

HOLIDAYOffice Closed

BD Jr. YBA SkiTrip

BCA National Council Meeting


1:00 p.m.Line Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke


1:00 p.m.Line Dance

7:30 p.m.Karaoke

7:00 p.mFukuoka Sister

City Ass’n

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Happy New Year - Buddhist Church of Oakland