50th Anniversary
Special Issue

BUKKYO DENDO KYOKAI Society for the Promotion of Buddhism

Michi- The Path -

04
2015

No.

BDK
Newsletter

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04

Michi
- The Path -CONTENTS

01

The Door to the Future, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai(BDK) Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Celebrating 50 years : Appreciation for Mitutoyo Corporation
Mitutoyo Celebrates 80th Anniversary: Mitutoyo Exhibition,"Japanese Quality by Mitutoyo" with a special display about BDK"Sosensai" Service in Mitutoyo

04

BDK Japan News 2014
〜BDK Publications〜"BDK English Tripiṭaka"BDK 50th Anniversary Special Interview with Dr. Sengaku Mayeda

The BDK English Tripiṭaka Series ‒ Update for 2014
The 50th Anniversary Project: Photography Competition for BDK Calendar"A Wise Teaching A Day"
"The Teaching of Buddha" In A HotelInterview with Mr. Hiroshi Suzuki , Deputy General Manager, Hotel New Otani“The Teaching of Buddha” - Update for 2014

〜BDK Fellowship Programs〜
For Foreign Scholars
For Japanese Scholars〜BDK Financial Aids〜

BDK Special Programs and Photography Exhibition for the Supportof the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami‒“Buddhaʼs Words and Views of India: Live Out Your Life”
The 48th BDK Cultural Awards〜Buddhist Lectures and Seminars〜

The 44th Jissen Fukyo Kenkyukai, BDK Missionary Seminar
at Daihonzan Myoshinji
Mita Rakugo-kai
Buddhism Through English
Special Summer Program: Studying "The Teaching of Buddha" for Business/ Studying "The Teaching of Buddha" for Daily Life
BDK Meditation Seminar: Meditation Retreat for Business People
2014 BDK Symposium: "Buddhism an Myself"
Take a Break: A Buddhist Way of Food Education- A Vegetarian Recipeby Rev. Koyu Iinuma, Fukushoji

24

BDK Aﬃliated Organizations Activities

36"Sasaeatte - Inochi, Life"World Map & Contact Info.
BDK America
BDK Hawaii
BDK Canada
BDK Mexico
BDK South America
BDK Taiwan
BDK Europe
BDK UKBDK Newsletter No.4 2015 - 6/1/2015 -5,000
Copyrightⓒ2015 by BUKKYO DENDO KYOKAI(BDK)
Published by BDK
3-14, Shiba-4chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 108-0014

Edited by Kaoru Eguchi, BDK
Printed in Japan by ARC Co., Ltd.
Special Thanks to Mrs. Noriko Shimada
for photography

BDK Newsletter2015

50th Anniversary
Special Issue

The Door to the Future,
Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK)
Celebrates 50th Anniversary
In 1965, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) was established by the late Rev. Dr. Yehan
Numata, the founder of Mitutoyo Corporation, the world’s leading company manufacturing precision measuring machines and instruments. His fervent wish was tospread the teachings of Buddha throughout the world. From that time on, BDK has
diligently been translating and distributing “The Teaching of Buddha” with thesupport and cooperation of like-minded individuals and organizations. Mitutoyo
celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2014.
BDK has set the ultimate goal of propagating Buddhist wisdom found in the basics
of Japanese culture by sponsoring a wide range of cultural activities and academic
programs.
Wars and terrorism continue in today’s world and people are fighting over different
religions, races, ideologies and so on. They have taken away many innocent lives
and it is hard to imagine the follies that we human beings can commit.
We need to go one more step forward in thisdifficult time and speak loudly about thespirit of compassion and symbiosis, which
are the basics of Buddha’s wisdom. BDK
must make contributions toward a morepeaceful world in this special year, and I
truly appreciate your generous understanding and continued support of BDK activities.

With Gassho,

Toshihide Numata,
Chairman1

Introduction of " Mitutoyo Co., Ltd. "Celebrating 50 years: Appreciation
for Mitutoyo Corporation
As we celebrate our 50th anniversary,
we realize that BDK could not comethis far without the great support from
the Mitutoyo Corporation, and weｓMitutoyo set its management philosophy when the founder, the lateRev. Dr. Yehan Numata, originally
started the business in Japan. It wasand always will be the essential starting point for the corporation. “The
Mitutoyo Philosophy” is presented in
the official Mitutoyo website, and all

employees can always reply on it.

would like to take a moment to remindourselves of the basic Mitutoyo philosophy and the relationship it has had
with BDK for decades.

(1) To contribute to people's welfare
through support of the advancementof Buddhist understanding.
(2) To see that Mitutoyo excels in its
field of expertise and in its businessconduct throughout the world

This philosophy is basic to Mitutoyo’s
management principles of “contributing to the well-being of society
through precision measurement technologies.”

Mitutoyo Celebrates 80th Anniversary: Mitutoyo
Exhibition, "Japanese Quality by Mitutoyo"with a special display about BDK
Mitutoyo held a special event in April,2014 to celebrate the 80th anniversaryof the foundation of the Japanesecompany that specializes in measuring instruments and metrological
technology.
The 80th anniversary celebration washeld in Ota-ku Sangyo Plaza Pio,
Tokyo under the theme “JapaneseQuality by Mitutoyo.” The event
showed Mitutoyo’s contribution in thefield of precision measurement andalso highlighted some of its new products, as the company sets its sights on
its 100th anniversary.
Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) was

2

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

also featured with a special displaythat introduced its activities and therelationship between “Business andBuddhism” with explanations about
how business terms in Japanese are
deeply related to the basics ofBuddhist thought.
In October, BDK was featured inanother Mitutoyo anniversary exhibition in Hiroshima, and many visitors
stopped by the BDK display andshowed an interest in the ideas about“Business and Buddhism.”
We also distributed the following:“Toyo Keizai” offprint leaflet: 5,300
copies“Ayumi” BDK’s introductory brochure:5,300 copies“The Teaching of Buddha” 200 copies“The Wisdom of Buddhism in
Bukkyo-no-Himitsu” Manga: 300
copies“Sosensai” Service in Mitutoyo
Mitutoyo / BDK Founder, the late Rev. Dr. Yehan
Numata, started a “Sosensai” service in Mitutoyo.
All the Mitutoyo branches have held the service

The late Rev. Dr. Numata said the following in “My Path,” which is a transcript from the Buddhist Culture
Lecture Series at Sensoji Temple,
October, 1975.
─“When I started my business,
Japan was in an acute depression. The
world was drifting into the wild tideof eroticism, grotesque exhibitionism
and nonsense. Even serious young
workers from the countryside were
tempted to follow easy going andsometimes foolish ways. They often
forgot their parents back home andtheir original intentions for coming to
the big city. I remembered the peacefulness of mind that I had when I sat
in that basement room facing thepaper my father had handwritten foronce a month to express appreciation for family
members who already have passed away.

me. I made a place in my factory
where the workers could assemble
with the spirits of their ancestors. The
workers could burn incense in memory of a lost one, especially when theworker could not be with his loved
ones. I had hoped that the burning of
incense and the recitation of “Namu
Amida Butsu” or a moment of meditation would bring comfort and peace
to my workers, just as I had felt comforted when I was in America. The
beneficial effects of this rite came toincrease gradually. The employees’
faces became peaceful, and the number of people who quit decreased.
Manufacturing micrometers is a very
precise task, so a worker could easily
omit some necessary but tiresome

step if he/she wanted to. It is difficult
to detect such careless work. Suchcareless and lazy workers would be
the cause for losing public confidence
and gaining a bad reputation for our
products. Through this ancestral rite, I
could succeed not only in reformingsome bad characters but also in assuring the value and achievement of myproducts.’ I believed that the makingsof fine personal characters and fine
products are the same.” (pg. 13 –pg.15, “My Path”)
Rev. Toshihide Numata, Mitutoyo
advisor (current BDK chairman), has
followed the will of the late Rev. Dr.
Yehan Numata and kept the great tradition. He has visited each Mitutoyo
branch office all over the country andparticipated in “Sosensai” services
every month.
For more information about
Mitutoyo Corporation, pleasecontact: Mitutoyo Corporation
1-20-1 Sakado Takatsu-ku,
Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken
213-8533
Tel: +81(44)813-8201
Fax: +81(44)813-8210
http://www.mitutoyo.co.jp/

3

BDK JAPANNEWS 2014

BDK Publications
BDK English Tripiṭaka

BDK 50th Anniversary Special Interview with Dr. Sengaku Mayeda
Interviewer & Photography: Kaoru Eguchi, BDK
Location: the Editorial Room for the English Tripiṭaka, BDK Center Building
As BDK marked the 50th anniversary year of its
establishment in 2015, we took a moment to focus on
the “BDK English Tripiṭaka,” one of our most important
projects since 1982. Some people might have heard
about the ‘English Tripiṭaka’ before, however webelieve that many people still do not know what itexactly is. We had a great opportunity to interview Dr.
Sengaku Mayeda, the chairman of the editorial committee, and we asked him some questions about
the“BDK English Tripiṭaka” project.

Special Thanks to the BDK English Tripiṭaka editorial team for their cooperation with the interview: Dr. Kenneth
Tanaka, Dr. Shogo Watanabe, and Mr. Yoshiyasu Yonezawa

Q

What is the ‘English
Tripiṭaka’?
What is the ‘English Tripiṭaka’?
I think there are two big questions thatcome up at first. 1) Since we call it the‘English Tripiṭaka”, “what language is
it being translated from?” 2) “What is
Tripiṭaka?” in the first place?
It is being translated from Kanbun,
classical Chinese, into English, andthe texts are originally from the“Chinese Mahayana Tripiṭaka.” Thesame question about the translation
can be asked about the Chinese
Tripiṭaka: what language was it translated from? It was mostly from
Sanskrit, that is, classical Indian or
hybrid Sanskrit. Those languages
belong to the same linguistic family as
English and German.

4

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─I know this is not enough of an explanation for everyone, so I will try togive you more detail. Some Japanesepeople are familiar with some
Sanskrit cognates. For example,“ Terebi tou,” or TV tower inJapanese, is related to the Sanskrit
word, stūpa. ‘Tou’ in Japanese means‘tower’ in English, and ‘tower’ means‘stūpa’ in Sanskrit. We can find a lotof words such as this in our daily life
in Japan.
Well, now let us go back to the question of the Tripiṭaka: “who transmitted
the Sanskrit sutras?” The answer is
Xuanzang (602-664), who was themodel for the character Sanzo-Hoshi
in “Saiyuki, A Journey to the West(also called Monkey),” a popular

Chinese novel describing Xuanzang’s
travels to India with his companions.
‘San’ means three and ‘Zo’ means astorehouse of sutras in Japanese. He ismainly referred to as “Tang Sanzang”
in the novel. His name refers to his
mission of seeking the "Three
Collections of (Buddhist) Scriptures."
In some English translations ofJourney to the West, his name is rendered as “Tripiṭaka.” He brought somany sutras and scriptures back to
China, and the Chinese government
built a translation center after hereturned and supported his translation
project. ‘Tripitaka’ refers to all of this.
When I was younger, I was once a
member/judge of a committee for scientific research funds sponsored by
the Japanese government. At one of

Dr.Tanaka, Dr.Mayeda, Mr.Yonezawa and Dr.Watanabe(from left to right)

the meetings, some government officers from the Ministry of Education
and Culture at the time kept misreading Tripiṭaka. I did not even noticewhat he was talking about at first. In
Japanese, Tripiṭaka is read as‘Daizokyo,’ but the officer was callingit ‘Okurakyo.’ ‘Daizo’ can also beread ‘Okura’… but I was extremely
surprised that they had no idea what
the Tripiṭaka was about; they did noteven notice that they misread it! I
realized, then, that BDK’s Tripiṭaka
project was important in our long history but that it was not known very
well at the same time.

And now, I am going to talk about
OUR Tripiṭaka project. It is based on
the Taishō Tripiṭaka, and let me
explain a little about it. This is a major
masterpiece that Dr. Junjiro Takakusu(1866-1945) and Dr. Kaikyoku
Watanabe (1872-1933) had spent ten
years to compile. The compilation isbased on the ‘Tripiṭaka Koreana,’
which is now registered as one of theWorld Heritages and is highly valued
in the field of Buddhist studies. Now
we have been translating this masterpiece into English and digitizing it
furthermore. I hope you now have abetter understanding of what we havebeen doing and how important andsignificant our project is.
I still remember an article in The
Nikkei, a leading Japanese newspaper
about economics (July 6, 1985), in
which Dr. Hajime Nakamura (19121999) explained how aspects of Asianpeople’ s thinking are based on
Buddhist spirituality. The Tripiṭaka
project could be an effective way tohelp people from the West to understand the Asian way of thinking.
Buddhist ideas are hard to translate
into English; however, it might be agood first step in clearing up any misunderstandings based on stereotypicalimages people have of Japan.

Q

I see. That is why the BDK
Tripiṭaka project is magnificent and influential among scholars of Buddhist studies as well as
historians all over the world. So,
could you tell us about the historyof the project and the editorialcommittee to date? And why do
we need an ‘English’ Tripiṭaka?
I remember clearly that the late Rev.
Dr. Yehan Numata, the founder of
BDK, was the first person who conceived of and planned this magnificent project. The first chairman of theeditorial committee was my classmate
at Tokyo University, Rev. Dr. Shoyu
Hanayama (1931-1995). It was very
sad that he passed away at the age of
63 in 1995. We cannot ask him about
those early days, but I will try to tell
you about the history as I know them.

5

BDK JAPANNEWS 2014"It is my greatest wish...to make thetranslations available to the many
English-speaking people who havenever had the opportunity to learn
about the Buddha's teachings." -Rev. Dr. Yehan Numata
Dr. Numata had “The Teaching of
Buddha (TTOB)” translated into as
many languages as possible and widely disseminated throughout the world
at the time, but he was not satisfied
with the great success of the TTOB
project. He came up with the idea oftranslating the Buddhist sutras themselves, which was the source of
TTOB. It was such a grand idea!
Buddhists in China translated theteachings of Buddha into Chinese
from Indian Sanskrit, and monks in
Tibet created the Tibetan version of
the Tripiṭaka. However in Japan, we
did not try to translate it into Japanesefrom Chinese. We do have versions
in which the Chinese characters areannotated with Japanese pronunciations. We did not imagine that wewere going to translate it into English
and not into Japanese.
Dr. Hanayama talked about this project in The Nikkei (July 6, 1985), andhe said that he did not even take itseriously when he first heard the ideafrom Dr. Numata. There is noJapanese version of the Tripiṭaka. He
had no idea where to start at first.
However, Dr. Numata officially established the ‘Translation Committee of
the English Tripiṭaka’ in 1982 shortly
after he talked about his plan to Dr.

6

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

Hanayama. The Committee selected
139 major texts from India, China,
and Japan for the first series. An international community of nearly 100 top
Buddhist scholars, from the UnitedStates, Japan, India, China, France,
Germany, Belgium, and Canada, hasbeen involved in the translation work.
When the first series of texts is translated and published, the Committee
will select and assign texts for the second series, continuing in this way
until the entire Taishō Tripiṭaka iscompleted. It has been estimated that
it will take a hundred years or more totranslate and publish the entire canon,
and that eventually it will be compiled
into a thousand volumes.
At the time we started, we usuallycame to the BDK office twice a week,
and some members were working
three times a week. We planned tocomplete the first series by the end of
the 20th century. We selected young,promising scholars for such a longterm plan, however, some of them
unexpectedly passed away, and theplan was just a plan. When Dr.
Hanayama first asked me to join thecommittee, I felt I should accept it
since he had asked me. Time flies sofast, and it has already been thirty
years since we had that conversation.
The project has begun to fulfill Dr.
Numata’s dream of introducing thelargely unexplored Chinese
Mahayana Tripiṭaka throughout the
English-speaking world. It was just a
simple wish without any academic
purpose. To be read by many people
throughout the world, it had to betranslated into a language like
English. Dr. Numata wanted everyone, not only scholars in the field, tobe able to read it. In order to facilitate
this prodigious project, thePublication Committee was established at the Numata Center forTranslation and Research in Berkeley,
California in the United States in
1991.
The Publication Committee inBerkeley is like a twin brother to the
Editorial Committee in Tokyo.
However we had complaints fromthem that some of our translation
works were not good enough to be
published in the U. S. We had a hardtime understanding each other’s wayof thinking, but both of us still exist
like a family until today. Moreover, I
have been surrounded by three competent scholars like Dr. Kenneth
Tanaka, Dr. Shogo Watanabe, and Mr.
Yoshiyasu Yonezawa, and without
their great help, I would not have beenable to chair this committee. I truly
appreciate them.
Translation works are not usually recognized as academic research. It takes
time, and I know it does not pay welleither. Therefore, we have had a hardtime recruiting scholars as competent
as our team members who haveremained on the committee.
In translating Buddhist texts into alanguage that most people in theworld speak, it is important to notethat Buddhism has a variety of different schools and sects. It is hardenough to present the magnificent

accomplishments of even one school,
but Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) is
a nondenominational “Public Interest
Incorporated Foundation,” and therefore can represent and work for all
schools.
As we have started making available
the BDK Tripiṭaka Translation Series
in collaboration with the SAT
Daizōkyō text database project, you
can not only browse the English translations online but also consult theoriginal Chinese texts and the Digital
Dictionary of Buddhism, along with arange of other resources. For Japanese
speakers, the Tripiṭaka might befamiliar, but for English speakers, thiswill surely help a lot of people learn
more about the basic ideas of
Buddhism.

Q

Thank you very much forsharing the stories of yourexperience. For the last question,

Profilelet me ask, what is the ‘English
Tripiṭaka’ to you? And what do
you think about the future plan forthis project?
As I told you earlier, the ‘English
Tripiṭaka’ is an English version of amajor cultural heritage in history. We
have seen and heard many sad andcruel scenes from the events intoday’s world. I believe that the
Buddhist spirit of compassion will
help people let go of hatred. I know it
is difficult to accomplish, however, I
would like to make a fresh resolve
and prepare for more publications inthis 50th anniversary year of BDK.
Dr. Tanaka was telling us that thesedays there are more opportunities touse Buddhist texts in religious studies
classes at universities in the U.S.
‘English Tripiṭaka’ texts have alreadybeen used as textbooks in classrooms
at some universities. We also provide
free online PDF versions as well.

Therefore, the ‘English’ Tripiṭaka isoffering more opportunities for more
people to learn about Buddhism. I
hope our BDK ‘English Tripiṭaka’will become the global-standard in the
future. We are making every effort tocomplete the first stage of the projectat the earliest possible time.
The gentle and sincere personality of
Dr. Mayeda and the friendly committee members helped us to better
understand the complexity of thismonumental project. Although the
project is still a difficult one to complete, their dedication to the project
deeply impressed us. Dr. Mayeda
strongly emphasized that point when
he stated, “we will continue to maintain our resolve to keep up our workwith the translations and publications
into the future.” BDK truly hopes that
Buddhist spirituality will be disseminated more widely through thisTripiṭaka project.

Dr. Sengaku Mayeda●Award/medal winning philosopher in Japan and other Asian countries such as China, India, Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Presidentof Hajime Nakamura Toho-Kenkyusho, The Nakamura Hajime Eastern
Institute. Also serves as a professor emeritus of Tokyo University
and Musashino University. Born in Nagoya in 1931. Graduated fromthe University of Tokyo and the University of Pennsylvania.

The BDK English Tripiṭaka Series – Update for 2014
We have completed the 46th translation, “THE NIRVANA SUTRA, Vol. #1［Taisho 374, ］” in January 2014.
We have also made the PDF versions of the English Tripiṭaka available on our official website, starting fromFebruary. You may browse 20 volumes out of 40 at the moment. BDK hopes that more English readers will
have the opportunity to become familiar with the Buddhist canon and sutras.
For more information about the BDK English Tripiṭaka Series, please visit the BDK official website.

7

BDK JAPAN

01
Activity

NEWS 2014
The 50th Anniversary Project: Photography
Competition for BDK Calendar "A Wise
Teaching A Day"

We held a photography competition
for the BDK calendar, “ A Wise
Teaching A Day” as one of our 50th
Anniversary projects. We publish thispopular calendar every year, and forthe 2015 version, we invited people tosend in good photographs.

Publication of the Newest
Michishirube, “Tadashii Kotoba–SHOGO”
A commentary Book for the BDK
Calendar, “A Wise Teaching A Day”
We have published the newest
Michishirube series, “SHOGO,” as acommentary book for the 2015 BDK
calendar. We have changed thedesigns and colors according to the“Color Universal Design.” It is a user-

8

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─We received over 1400 pieces for thecompetition and our selection committee chose 31 of them in September
2, 2014. All of the selected pieces
were also published in “ Japan
Camera,” one of the leading Japanesemagazines for photography. We werethus able to provide a great opportuni-

oriented design system, which has
been developed in consideration ofpeople with various types of color
vision, to allow information to beaccurately conveyed to as many individuals as possible. Our book has
been officially approved by the Color
Universal Design Organization. The
book was written by Rev. Prof.
Emeritus Eshin Nishimura fromHanazono University.

ty for people to feel the spirit of
Buddhism through these art works.
The 50th Anniversary version of the
BDK Calendar, “A Wise Teaching A
Day,” will be published in June 2015.

All the winning entries with theirreviews can be seen in the BDK official website.

Interview“The Teaching of Buddha” In A HotelInterview with Mr. Hiroshi Suzuki, Deputy General Manager/Head of Room, Food & Beverage Division, Hotel New Otani
Location: Hotel New Otani
Interviewer & Photography: Kaoru Eguchi, BDK

Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) has been distributing“The Teaching of Buddha” for the past decades as
one of its major activities, and the books have beenutilized in a variety of ways in today’s modern world.

Q

First of all, could you tell us
the concept of Hotel New
Otani and its history?
It is our hotel’s 50th anniversary year
this year (in 2014). Tokyo has been
officially selected for the summer
Olympics in 2020 and people havespotlighted it all of a sudden. As thelast Olympic Games were held inTokyo 50 years ago, people rushed all

Today, we are welcoming Mr. Hiroshi Suzuki, theDeputy General Manager of Hotel New Otani, to ask
him about how they have been using our books foryears at their hotel.

kinds of construction projects everywhere in Japan. The Japanese government tried to build more hotels inTokyo to welcome more guests fromall over the world to see the Olympic
Games at that time, and Hotel New
Otani was opened as the first “international hotel*” in Japan.
*international hotel: hotels that provide all the necessary facilities andminimum room sizes to meet the international standard
The founder of Hotel New Otani said
that he wanted “all the hotel guests tosee Mt. Fuji,” and so he put the skyview lounge on top of the hotel. We
welcome guests from all over theworld and try to provide all of themwith comfortable rooms. For the last9now use garbage to create compost
with our 100% recycling system forgrowing plants in organic compost.

Q

few years, Japanese people started
using the word, “Omotenashi,” which
expresses a traditional Japanese wayof hospitality, and the word wasselected as one of the “2013 Buzzwordsof the Year in Japan.” However, our
hotel
has
been
providing“Omotenashi” to our guests for thelast fifty years. We have been trying tocreate a hotel atmosphere similar to a
town that families as well as state
guests can enjoy at the same time, but
the environment surrounding the hotel
has dramatically changed in the last
fifty years. At the time we opened ourhotel, it was called “the greatest superhigh rise hotel in the East.” We
installed “prefabricated baths” for the
first time in Japan, and it was an innovative and practical idea to build sucha prominent hotel. We also have been
trying to serve “the best and freshdishes all the time.” Good food makes

10

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

people smile, no matter who they areor where they come from or what they
believe in. We always strive toachieve this goal.
In the 2000s, we had to think about
whether to rebuild our main building(currently called The Main) since it
was 40 years old. We decided torenew it without destroying the wholebuilding. It was clear that tearing it
down and building a brand new one
would cost much less than renewing
it, but we chose “ Eco-Friendly
Renewal” for our future. We could
use lots of water, gas, electricity andgreat food to make our guests happy,
but think about it… this will result ina significant impact on our environment. Taking good care of our own
environment is a great idea and webelieve that “Eco-Friendly Omotenashi”
will be welcomed by our guests. We

I see. Then, what is the
purpose of having “The
Teaching of Buddha (TTOB)”
available in such a prestigious andluxurious class hotel? What has
been the reaction of your hotel
guests?
In a simple answer, (with a smilingface), let me say that “there is no reason to take it away.” We believe that a
lot of guests need it. If we remove it,
guests will surely complain. And I do
know many of them are actually reading it in their rooms. About 35 percent
of our guests are non-Japanese. The
purpose of their visit to Japan varies,
however most of them are interested
in visiting temples and shrines somewhere while they are staying in Japan.
People return from sightseeing withthe book in their hands. Buddhism is
one of the most popular religions inJapan and we have TTOB in our guest
rooms as a part of our “Omotenashi.”
I think that no one likes to rush during
their stay in a hotel. TTOB invites
guests to stop for a moment eventhough they are extremely busy andhave to rush, and that is important.
There always will be a copy of TTOB
by the bed in our hotel rooms, andtherefore everyone can easily access it
and use it as they wish. We have had
TTOB available in all of our guest
rooms since the time we started thebusiness here. TTOB sits there as it
always has been in our rooms. It isjust “natural” that we include it as oneof our room amenities. “There is noother thing like this book in theworld.” This is our answer after 50
years and I am confident that we
made the right decision.

Q

Thank you so much. Whatdo you think about the useof TTOB in the future at yourhotel?
Religious liberty is guaranteed inJapan, so we do not try to persuade
our guests to read it. We have been
just trying to provide something ourhotel guests need. We are going tohave TTOB available in every room
as we currently do. I heard that TTOB
has been translated into a variety oflanguages, so we could put a different
language version at our hotels in othercountries.
TTOB has taken on the role of givinga “relaxing” feeling to a room. I personally believe that a religion can easethe pain and agony in people’s lives.
We are not selling a hotel room asmuch as we are offering happiness,
and we would like to provide more
opportunities for our guests to understand Buddhism, one of our typicalreligions in Japan.

To date, we have distributed over 8.4
million copies of the book to over
13,000 major hotels in more than 60
countries, and the book has beentranslated into 46 languages. As Mr.
Suzuki promised, they are going tohave “The Teaching of Buddha”
available in their hotel from now on
as one of their “Omotenashi.” BDK
will continue to distribute free copies
of TTOB to hotels throughout theworld. We hope all hotels will accept

our book and place it in their guest
rooms. We bear the entire cost of thebook distribution, including shipping.
We also supply additional complimentary copies at any time uponrequest.
If you are interested in participating inthis program, please feel free to contact your nearest BDK office. We will
be happy to receive requests from allover the world.

For more information about Hotel New Otani, please contact them
directly as follows:
Hotel New Otani Tokyo
4-1 KIOI-CHO, CHIYODA-KU, TOKYO 102-8578, JAPANTel : 81-3-3265-1111 Fax : 81-3-3221-2619
http://www.newotani.co.jp/en/tokyo/

Q

Lastly, do you have any
new promotions and plans
as we are expecting more tourists
from all over the world as wemove towards the year 2020 of
theTokyo Olympics?
It is not only because of the Olympics,
but we are expecting more guests
from all over the world. Therefore, wehave been trying to improve the language skills of our employees andfocus on providing “Omotenashi” in afriendly way. We do not have a service manual in detail, and each
employee is developing his or her
own “Omotenashi” in the New Otani
way. As I mentioned earlier, we do notsell a room or food or a banquet. We
sell “happiness,” as our president
always reminds all of us.

11

BDK JAPAN

02
Activity

NEWS 2014“The Teaching of Buddha” - Update for 2014

BDK has distributed over 8.6 million
copies of “The Teaching of Buddha(TTOB)” in 46 different languages todate. We have focused on distributing
them to educational institutions in2014. More than 90,000 copies of thebook have been distributed to about
60 percent of the Buddhist universities and other related schools in Japan.
TTOB has been a good introductory
book for students to begin their study of
Buddhism. “The Wisdom of Buddhism

in Japan,” a manga comic book, wasalso published by BDK, and it has been
popular among schools overseas aswell as Japanese students who live outside of Japan. Through it, students areable to learn about Japanese traditions
and the Buddhist spirit.
The BDK headquarters in Tokyo, Japan has
been distributing TTOB to hotels for
decades, and we donated over 14,000
copies to more than 40 hotels in foreigncountries such as Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal

and such. For the2016 Olympic Gamesin Rio de Janeiro, we
are focusing on a
Portuguese version of
TTOB to distribute.
In addition, our free booklet,“Buddha’s Teachings,” has been
widely distributed throughout Japan.
For more information about BDK
publications, please visit our official
website.

BDK Fellowship Programs

01
Activity

BDK Fellowship for Foreign Scholars

The BDK Fellowship was established to promoteinternational cooperation and mutual understanding in
Buddhist studies, and is intended to enable
researchers to engage in research on Buddhism while
in Japan. The BDK Fellowship committee was established in 1991 and has selected over 60 promisingscholars up to the year 2015. Most of the recipientsare active in the front lines of today’s Buddhist academic world.
The BDK Fellowship committee selected threeprospective scholars for the 2014 grant. It is with great
pleasure that we introduce them at this time.

Scholarship : BDK Fellowship for Foreign Scholars
Scholarship Year : 2014
Name : Anton Luis Capistrano Sevilla
Nationality : The Philippines
Affiliation : Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University
Theme of Research : “The Dilemmas in Watsuji Tetsurô’s Ethics of Emptiness”

MessageI have always known about the BDK

12

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

through the BDK Tripitaka
Translation Series. The availability offree Buddhist documents was very
helpful for me as a young researcher

from a developing country. When I
had the opportunity to receive the
BDK Fellowship, I was very thankful,
not only for the financial assistance tocomplete my Ph.D. at the Graduate
University of Advanced Studies, butalso for the chance to play a (small)role within an organization I havealways respected.
Thanks to BDK’s support, I havecompleted and successfully defended

my dissertation entitled “Exporting
the Ethics of Emptiness: Applications,
Limitations, and Possibilities of
Watsuji Tetsurô’s Ethical System,”and will be receiving my Ph.D. in
March. Also, I have found employment at the Faculty of Arts andScience of Kyushu University, where
I hope to continue my dharma duties
both in teaching and in research.
For the next phase of my research, I
am shifting my focus to a more

applied philosophy, and will examine
the mutual contributions between the
Buddhist-inspired philosophy of nothingness/emptiness and contemporary
Philosophy of Education. Throughthis work, I hope I can, to a certain
extent, repay my debt of gratitude to
the BDK, and help in fulfilling its
mission of trying to bring true peaceto the world and spreading the teachings of the Buddha in a relevant way.

Scholarship : BDK Fellowship for Foreign Scholars
Scholarship Year : 2014
Name : Mónika Kiss
Nationality : Hungary
Affiliation : Ph.D. Candidate in the Doctoral Program of Japanese Philology at the Eötvös
Lóránd University, Faculty of Humanities
Theme of Research : Changes in the Iconography of the Images of Fugen Enmei Bosatsu

Message
Already half a year has passed since I
arrived in Japan last October. My goal
here is to gather as much materials as
I can for my future dissertation about
the iconography of Fugen Enmei
Bosatsu, the Bodhisattva for the
Prolongation of Life, one of the many
deities in the pantheon of Japanese
Esoteric Buddhism.

Usually every day I go to Ōtani
University and continue searching andworking, and thanks to that, myresearch is moving forward at a fast
pace. I have discovered many picturesand statues still remaining in temples
and museums in Japan and abroad aswell (almost 80 in all). I am focusing
not only on the old images but examining the art of Fugen Enmei Bosatsu
throughout the whole history ofJapanese art, from the Heian period(when it appeared first in Japan) to themodern days. These artifacts and theEsoteric scriptures of the Shingon andTendai sects are the basis of my work.
I have started to translate into English
the Fugen Enmeihō and Enmeihō ofthe Kakuzenshō (Shingon) and the
Asabashō (Tendai) with my adviser
regarding Fugen Enmei Bodhisattva,
the main deity of these ceremonies.
For the remainder of my time inJapan, I will try to visit as many tem-

ples as I can to examine the picturesand statues first hand. I hope that I
will have enough time to get to suchplaces as the Jikōji temple in
Hiroshima prefecture or the Tateyama
City Musuem in Chiba prefecture. I
have already seen the oldest statue,
originally in the Taisanji temple inŌita prefecture, in an exhibition thatwas held in Fukuoka last November.
I am very grateful to the Bukkyo
Dendo Kyokai, for giving me thisopportunity. I am hoping to achieve
all my goals in Japan in order to beable to write my PhD dissertation
when I get back to Hungary this fall.

13

BDK JAPANNEWS 2014
Scholarship : BDK Fellowship for Foreign Scholars
Scholarship Year : 2014
Name : Van Anh Thi Vo
Nationality : Vietnam
Affiliation : Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Buddhist Studies, Graduate School of Letters,
Ryūkoku University
Theme of Research : A study on the formation of the theory of religious practice in the
Yogācāra School

Message
Having received a BDK Fellowshipfor Foreign Scholars, I am not eco-

02
Activity

nomically bothered, so that I am able
to concentrate on my studies all thetime. I would like to thank deeply

everyone at BDK who have given me
the rare opportunity of study.
Thank you so much, BDK!

BDK Fellowship for Japanese Scholars

Since the BDK Fellowship for Foreign Scholars wasestablished in 1991, we have supported and contributed to the development of many foreign scholarsof Buddhist studies. BDK established the Fellowship
for Japanese scholars to enable worthy scholars toengage in research on Buddhism in foreign countries.
The BDK Fellowship committee selected two
prospective scholars for the 2014 grant. It is with great
pleasure that we introduce them at this time.

Scholarship : BDK Fellowship for Japanese Scholars
Scholarship Year : 2014
Name : Sayaka Kishi
Affiliation : Graduate Student, Doctoral Program in Philosophy, Graduate School of Humanities
and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
Theme of Research : Who are Mahāyānika bodhisattvas? ― A comparative study of commentaries on Mahāyāna sūtras and Yogācāra-vijñaptivāda treatises―

Message
After submitting my dissertation, I
wanted to study abroad, so I applied
for a BDK scholarship on the basis ofa new research theme, The
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra is one of the
Yogācāra treatises, and it contains
many canonical citations from
Mahāyāna sūtras, such as theAkṣayamatinirdeśasūtraand

14

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

Ratnakūṭasūtra. I had researched thisin my dissertation, but I needed to elucidate a link between the original
resources from the Yogācāra theory in
the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and thesecanonical citations. In order to clarify
this issue, I thought it would be best to
do my research under Prof. J.A. Silk,
who is a professor at Leiden
University in the Netherlands.

When I received the acceptance letterfrom BDK, I was so grateful for being
given a chance to work on myresearch abroad and to improve myability to read Mahāyāna sūtras. I also
thought that it must have been thehand of the Buddha.
Now, as noted above, I’m working on

the comparison between explanationsin the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and thecanonical citations as authorities ofthese theories. I’m convinced of theimportance of analyzing bothYogācāra treatises and Mahāyāna

sūtras for figuring out the development of the history of the Mahāyāna
Buddhism. Moreover, I have hadgreat opportunities for doing myresearch and communicating withother academic scholars all around theworld. Thanks to the scholarship from
BDK. From now, I hope to utilize myknowledge and experiences in orderto promote the development ofresearch and to make Buddhist ideas
more widely available.

Scholarship : BDK Fellowship for Japanese Scholars
Scholarship Year : 2014
Name : Toshikazu Watanabe
Affiliation : Institut für Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens
Theme of Research : Acceptance of logical thought in Mahāyāna Buddhism and its development
Message
I happened to find the information
about the BDK scholarship on the HBuddhism website. At that time myprevious three-year project was coming to an end and I had just come up
with a new idea for the next project.
So I thought it would be a goodchance to implement my idea and I
applied for the scholarship. I remember that when I heard about theacceptance of my application, I wasvery excited about carrying out mynew project and, at the same time, I
truly felt grateful to the people of the
Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, my teachers,colleagues, and my family for theirkind help.
I am currently studying the influenceof Buddhist logic systematized by
Dignāga (ca. 5 CE) on subsequent
Hindu and Buddhist thinkers. By seeing the historical development of
Mahāyāna Buddhism from the pointof view of logical thought, it is possible to clarify the relationship between
the Madhyamaka and Yogācāra
schools; and to see that they are not
only opposed, but also have a mutual
effect on each other.
One of the requirements of this scholarship is that the recipient must be

affiliated with a foreign university or
research institute. This is very helpful
for me in order to create an international research network. At the next
World Sanskrit Conference to be heldin Bangkok I will read a paper at apanel organized by a colleague of myinstitute and will present the results ofmy new project.
I will, in the future, also deal with
Chinese and Japanese Buddhism andwill investigate how Buddhist logic is
accepted in these cultures and how it
affects their thinking in different times
and places.

For more information about the scholarship program, please visit
the BDK official website.

15

BDK JAPANNEWS 201401

BDK Financial Aids

Activity

BDK Special Programs and Photography
Exhibition for the Support of the Great EasternJapan Earthquake and Tsunami –“Buddha’s
Words and Views of India: Live Out Your Life”

Four years have passed since the 2011 Great EasternJapan Earthquake and Tsunami struck Japan. Since
then, BDK has been setting up financial aid and vol-The great earthquake and tsunami
washed everything away and took
thousands of precious lives. For theyear, 2014, BDK hosted a photography exhibition to use the power of art
to try to ease people’s feelings of suffering. Photographs were originallytaken for “Following in the Footstepsof Buddha” by Isamu Maruyama, anaward winning photographer. We prepared commentaries on each work byciting the words of the late Dr. Hajime
Nakamura, one of the world’s leading
authorities of Buddhist Studies.
The photographs were exhibited atthree locations in Iwate-prefecture,
starting from September 2014. We
visited Kitakami City, Miyako City,and Kamaishi City and welcomedabout 5,300 people.
Following the showings in Iwate, we
held an exhibition in Tokyo as well. It
opened on March 10, 2014 at the
Mitsuo Aida Museum inside the Tokyo
International Forum. During two weeks,over 7,000 people visited the Tokyo
venue and enjoyed the exhibition.

16

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

unteer programs each year. Even though time has
passed, we still need to continue a variety of support
to help people recover.

BDK also held a lecture talk show inTokyo on March 14, 2014. We sponsored Mr. Jun Miura, a cartoonist andillustrator, and Mr. Tetsuo Nakanishi,
a comedian, who made presentations
on the theme of “Supporting thePeople of the Great Eastern Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami – A Funny
Buddhist Lecture.” Over 1,100 people
attended the show and had an unusual
opportunity to experience new aspectsof Buddhism.
A lot of people made donations during
the exhibitions and the show, and allof the proceeds were donated to thecharity “Iwate-Manabi-no-KibouKikin,” Iwate Hope Educational
Foundation.

It is BDK’s wish that these supporting
programs and contributions will help
revive the well-being and happinessIn Tokyoof the people in the stricken area andwill be a little boost to support them inthe future ahead.

In Kamaishi City

In Miyako City

02
Activity

The 48th BDK Cultural Awards

Starting from the year 2012, BDK
established a new award besides the
BUNKA-SHO, the Cultural Awards
for the Promotion of Buddhism. It iscalled the “ Numata Shorei-sho(Numata Innovation & Visionary
Award),” which is given to individuals who are already exhibiting dedi-

cated service to Buddhism, and intime will become an up-and-coming
contributor to the promotion of
Buddhism.
The BDK Cultural Award Committee
selected the following awardees andpresented them with a gift and hono-

The 48th Bukkyo Dendo
Bunka-sho:Rev. Hoyo Watanabe●Made a great contribution in the
research of the Heart Sutra and Nichiren
doctrine. Devoted to the education anddevelopment of tomorrow's citizens aspresident of Rissho University.

rarium of JPY3,000,000 for the
Cultural Awards for the Promotion of
Buddhism and JPY2,000,000 for the
Numata Innovation & Visionary
Award. The 48th ceremony and banquet were held at the BDK Center
Building in Tokyo on October 17,
2014.

The Numata Shorei-Sho:Rev. Jerome Ducor●Belongs to the Swiss Shingyo-ji
Temple of the Shin Buddhist tradition.
Promotes Buddhism in Europe
through the translation and dissemination of Buddhist texts in French.

17

BDK JAPANNEWS 2014

Buddhist Lectures and Seminars

01
Activity

The 44th Jissen Fukyo Kenkyukai,
BDK Buddhist Missionary Seminar
at Daihonzan Myoshinji

The first Jissen Fukyo Kenkyukai(BDK Buddhist Missionary Seminar)
was held as a small discussion grouporganized by BDK founder, the lateRev. Dr.Yehan Numata, in 1970.
BDK has sponsored this event every
single year since then, and the seminar has gradually become popularamongst Japanese Buddhist priests.
More than 2,300 priests and their temple family members have attended
these Jissen seminars since that time.
Annually, this seminar is held at theheadquarters of a different Japanese
Buddhist sect, and each host sectenthusiastically supports BDK in
hosting this event, which enables
everyone to enjoy and learn a great
deal from this opportunity each year.

18

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─BDK hosted the 44th Jissen Fukyo
Kenkyukai at Daihonzan Myoshinji
from June 3 to June 6, 2014 with thetheme of “Learning from RinzaiZen,” and welcomed about 55 priests
and their temple family members
from throughout Japan: 45 malepriests and 10 female priests, age 21
to 82, including one from Thailand.
During three days of the seminar, participants experienced Zazen meditation practices and, listened to lecturesfrom three special guest speakers:“Learning from Zen” by Rev. Eshin
Nishimura, “The Future of Japanese
Buddhism” by Prof. Shizuka Sasaki,
and “The Mind of Rinzai-Zen” by
Rev. Sodo Yasunaga. Moreover, Rev.

Kogaku Mine,the superintendent
priest and chief abbot of Rinzai-shu,addressed the participants. They also
had provocative discussions about thetheme, “ The Future of Japanese
Buddhism.”

02
Activity

Mita-Rakugo-Kai

Rakugo is one of the oldest forms ofJapanese verbal entertainments. It issaid that the origins of Rakugo camefrom Fushidansekkyo, which is a styleused by Buddhist priests to tell theteachings of the Buddha with gesturesand melodic rhythm. Some Japanesewords are even originated from
Rakugo such as Zenza, an opening
performance, Tenugui, a traditional
Japanese towel and so on. BDK offers
opportunities for the general public toexperience the essence of Buddhist
culture and spirituality through theevent.

03
Activity

We hold “Mita-Rakugo-Kai” sixtimes a year; in February, April, June,
August, October and December. April
has the day of Buddha’s birthday,
April 8th. August has Obon, observed
around August 15th, the homecoming
time for the souls of ancestors.
December includes the day for celebrating Shakyamuni’s enlightenment.
We have both daytime and night performances in a scheduled day. For theyear 2014, we welcomed Mr. Gontaro
Yanagiya, a Rakugo master with
Purple Ribbon Medal, Mr. Shozo
Hayashiya, a popular Rakugo mas-ter/TV star and other masters of
Rakugo for each month.
“Mita-Rakugo-Kai” has been introducing a variety of traditional andorthodox Rakugo stories for decades.

Buddhism Through English

One of BDK’s missions is to “support
educational programs that advance theBuddhist spirit, culture and its study.”
Seminars and lectures geared towardspecific and general interests aresponsored throughout the year.
BDK provides an opportunity to learn
about the basics of Buddhism in both
Japanese and English. Through thismeans, we hope to create opportunities for those with an interest in
Buddhist teachings to learn more
about themselves and Buddhism. The
English lectures are provided by Prof.
Kenneth Tanaka from Musashino
University and were first offered in2012. The lectures for 2014 werebased on the BDK DVD “ TVPreaching,” which includes interviews
with leading priests and scholars in
Buddhist studies.
For the year 2015, we have welcomeda new lecturer, Mr. Stefan Grace, avisiting researcher from the Shinran
Buddhism Center. From April to
September 2015, Mr. Grace will introduce “Learning Zen Through Easy
English Words” based on “ The
Teaching of Buddha”
inJapanese/English. From October,Prof. Kenneth Tanaka will be back.
BDK will continue to provide morechances for everyone to learn about
Buddhism and its basic ideas. For
more information about “Buddhism

Through English,” please visit theofficial BDK website or our Facebook
page. You may also browse throughpast BDK TV programs online for
free.

19

BDK JAPAN

04
Activity

NEWS 2014
Special Summer Program:
Studying “The Teaching of Buddha” for Business /Studying “The Teaching of Buddha” for Daily Life

Studying “The Teaching of Buddha”
for Business was established in 1981
for business people who desire abackground in Buddhism to help
them operate and manage their companies and business ventures. And
Studying “The Teaching of Buddha”
for Daily Life was started in 1982 toshare the Dharma so that attendees
could learn how to live their daily
lives with the spirit of the Buddha
through reading “The Teaching of
Buddha.” People gather once a monthand learn some teachings from thelectures.
During the summer, those two separate study groups get together andhold a special program every year.
The 2014 program was held in Kyoto
and 30 people attended and visitedmany popular Buddhist sites for two

05
Activitydays from August 30 to 31, 2014.
Participants enjoyed visiting many
popular Buddhist sites such as the
Jodoshinshu-Hongwanji headquarters
and attended the early morning services. Moreover, Reverend Shinkai
Sugarawa, the Monshu of MyohoinMonzeki, offered special words to thegroup.

The participants hardly have an
opportunity to talk to each other during the regular study groups, howeverin the summer program, they are able
to get to know each other and thisenergizes each study group with amore lively atmosphere.
For more information and schedules
about those lectures, please visit our
official website.

BDK Meditation Seminar:
Meditation Retreat for Business People

BDK provides an opportunity for people to reflect on their way of life and20

At Sanjusangendo, Kyoto

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─to provide some calm and peace
amidst today’s stressful society. We
have been conducting the “BDK
Meditation Seminar” since 2013 especially for busy women under the guidance of Rev. Junsho Oka (Head priest,
Tendai-shu Enyuji Temple). From
2014, we invited all working people
to participate in it.
The “ BDK Meditation Seminar:

Meditation Retreat for Business
People” for 2014 was also quite popular, and welcomed more than 150 men
and women in their 20s to 60s. For
2015, we are going to continue thesemeeting with a seminar on the 3rd
Tuesday of every month. For more
information about the meditation seminar, please visit our official website.

06
Activity

2014 BDK Symposium: “Buddhism and Myself”

BDK held three lectures for the “2014
BDK Symposium” with the common
theme of “Buddhism and Myself.”
We invited three people to give lectures about how they deal with thequestion, “What is Buddhism to me?”For the first lecture, we welcomed
Ms. Mitsuyo Ohira, lawyer, author
and former deputy mayor of Osakacity. Her lecture was about how we
can make daily life better
throughBuddhist ideas. She also
explained how she could find happiness in hard times by talking about
her past experiences.

We welcomed Mr. Tetsuya Miyazaki,
critic, author and visiting professor,
for the second lecture. He talked
about “why we need Buddhism now”
and explained the necessity of
Buddhism in terms of his own thinking and experiences. His wide knowledge of Buddhist philosophy and his
new perspective provided the audience with tips on how to live a better
life in the modern world.
The third lecture was about “How we
can live with harsh realities,” and wewelcomed Dr. Rika Kayama(top left
photo), certified psychiatrist, critic

and professor. From her medical pointof view, she talked about why weneed Buddhism and how we canrediscover the value of Buddhism.
After each lecture, there was a lot of
feedback from many of the participants. BDK would like to continue toprovide more opportunities for everyone to experience and feel the positive
meaning and purpose of Japanese
Buddhism in today’s society.
For the “2015 BDK Symposium”
schedule and further information,please visit our official website.

21

Take a Break: A Buddhist Way of Food Education
A Vegetarian Recipe by Rev. Koyu Iinuma, Fukushoji
Report & Photography: Kaoru Eguchi, BDK
Special Thanks to Rev. Gashin Tomomitsu for photography
How seriously do you think about what you eat daily
these days when people pay attention to a healthy
diet and food safety? Why don’t we take a little breakhere and rethink our eating habits? We have welcomed Reverend Koyu Iinuma from Tendai-shu

Fukushoji, who is known as a “chef-monk,” and asked
how he feels about “food education.” He also will introduce a Buddhist SHOJIN, vegetarian recipe madeexclusively for our newsletter.

Koyu Iinuma - Profile●Tendai-shu Fukushoji Temple, AKA “chef-monk”
Born in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan in 1982. Ordained as a Tendai-Buddhist
priest at Hieizan Enryakuji Temple at the age of 19. Had interest in missionary work throughfoods while at Taisho University. Received a professional chef’s license after training at somerestaurants. Hosted “Suwaribito – Shungayu” and “Toki-wo-miru-kai,” gatherings at his temple
for Buddhist food education. Served some special dishes at “100 Young Priests with the Dalai
Lama” as one of three “chef-monks.”

Encouragement of “A Buddhist Way of Food Education”
It has been five years now since I
started the gatherings in which anyone
can experience Buddhism through
SHOJIN dishes at my temple. I
always try to prepare some dishes
cooked with a theme related to each

22

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

season and the season’s best ingredients, and participants have left herewith smiling faces.
One of the teachings of the Buddha is,“CHUDO,” the middle way. I believethat CHUDO is one of the mostimportant yet difficult practice in
Buddhism because it is related to very
simple things in our daily life.
Shakyamuni was born as a prince of a

noble Indian family about 2,500 years
ago, and he had no worries about hislife at his young age. However, once
he grew up, he left his comfortable
life at the palace and started his practices to solve questions about why weare born, age, get sick and die in theend. He noticed that he could notachieve a peaceful and quiet life eventhough he practiced very hard forsuch a long time in the woods. He
washed his body in a river andreceived milk porridge from a village
girl named Sujata, and then he quietly
started to meditate in a healthy andstable condition under a Bodhi tree
until he attained enlightenment.
He thought that neither a rich and luxurious life at a palace nor a poor andhard practice in woods was good.
Keeping a balanced life in a middle

Fukushoji temple

way was the most important.
In SHOJIN dishes, we respect“Tanmi,” a light flavor that is the tasteof each ingredient itself. You cannot
bring out Tanmi if you lean toward
sweet, sour, salty, bitter or spicy flavors. Each person has a different taste;
therefore, we should think about eachone and try to achieve a seasoningthat is just right. That is an example of
CHUDO. Moreover, we are notallowed to eat fish, eggs, cheese orbutter. In addition, we also exclude“Gokun,” the five pungent roots suchas garlic, chives and onions. This isthe basic way of Buddhist eating. If
you do not think about where it comesfrom and always appreciate the ingredients while you eat, SHOJIN dishes
will seem no different from other vegetarian dishes.

The phrase “ Sansen-SoumokuShitsuu-Bussho,” expresses our belief
that everything in this world has a life.
We humans, eat a variety of foods
derived from animals and plants intoday’s world. It does not matter
whether you eat SHOJIN dishes orregular dishes. I hope that people canexperience a feeling of “Okagesama,”
gratitude to everything when you eat
every day. This will add a greater richness of spirit to your life.
Koyu Iinuma, Tendai-shu Fukushoji

Spaghetti with Rich Miso Flavored Tofu Ragù a la Bolognese
Ingredients : 2 servings(Miso Flavored Tofu Ragù)① 200g Momen, Hard Tofu,
Drain water from tofu before cooking② 100g Ito-Konnyaku, konjak noodles③ 2 pieces of Shiitake mushrooms, cut into tiny dices④ 1/2 can of tomatoes⑤ Fresh parsley to taste, finely chopped⑥ 1 1/2 tablespoons of your favorite kind of Miso,
Japanese soybean paste⑦ 1 tablespoon of Mirin, sweet sake for seasoning⑧ Salt to taste⑨ 90cc of water
１ Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente.
Drain the spaghetti.
２ Meanwhile, in a large, deep skillet, heat theolive oil until simmering. Add the tofu,
Konnyaku and Shiitake mushrooms andcook over moderately high heat, breaking
up the tofu with a spatula, until lightly
browned.
３ Add tomatoes, parsley and Miso and cookover moderate heat until softened, about 5
minutes. ***If you are not in a hurry, you can<Other Ingredients>❶ Your favorite seasonal vegetables and mushrooms(in the picture) : 100g of Shimeji mushrooms
80g of Daikon radish, quarter sliced
50g of carrots, quarter sliced❷ 160g of spaghetti❸ 1 tablespoon of Shoyu, soy sauce❹ Salt to taste❺ Olive oil to taste❻ 90cc of water

put the sauce into a fridge for a night and it
will be milder after a day.
４ Heat the olive oil and add your favorite seasonal vegetables and cook over high heat
until softened. Add 90cc of water and boil
them over moderate heat, about 2 minutes.
***Simmer the vegetables until really softened. It is better to allow the flavors to blend.
５ Add the spaghetti to the sauce and tossover low heat until combined. Sprinkle soy
sauce, olive oil and fresh chopped parsley
as you wish.

23

BDK Affiliate Organization Activities
World Map & Contact Info.
1

BDK EUROPE

c/o Mitutoyo Canada Inc. 2121 Meadowvale Blvd.
Mississauga, ON, CANADA L5N 5N1
Tel: +1(905)821-1261 Fax: +1(905)821-4968
E-mail: honjo@bdkcanada.com(EKO-Haus der Japanischen Kultur e.V.)
Brüggener Weg 6, 40547 Düsseldorf, F.R. GERMANY
Tel: +49(211)577918-0 Fax: +49(211)577918-219
E-mail: pool@eko-hause.de
http://www.eko-haus.de/2

BDK U.K.

5

BDK AMERICA
1675 school Street,
Moraga, CA 94556 U.S.A.
Tel: +1(925)388-0067 Fax: +1(925)388-0331
E-mail: orders@bdkamerica.org
http://www.bdkamerica.org

c/o Mitutoyo(UK)Ltd. Joule Road, West Point
Business Park, Andover, Hants SP10 3UX U.K.
Tel: +44 1264-353123 Fax: +44 1264-354883
E-mail: bdk@mitutoyo.co.uk

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BDK JAPAN4BDK CANADA

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BDK HAWAII
1757 Algaroba Street, Honolulu, HI 96826, U.S.A.
Tel: +1(808)942-1511 Fax +1(808)942-2622
E-mail: bdkshi@hotmail.com
http://www.bdkhawaii.com/

3-14, Shiba 4-chome, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, JAPAN 108-0014
Tel: +81(3)3455-5851 Fax: +81(3)3798-2758
E-mail: bdk@bdk.or.jp
http://www.bdk.or.jp/

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2

1
5

3
6

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BDK TAIWAN

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c/o Mitutoyo Taiwan Co., Ltd.
4F., No.71, Zhouzi St., Neihu Dist.,
Taipei City 114, TAIWAN (R.O.C)
Tel: +886(2)5573-5913 Fax: +886(2)8752-3267
E-mail: sharon@mitutoyo.com.tw

BDK ASIA
c/o Mitutoyo Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.
24 Kallang Avenue, Mitutoyo Building,Singapore, 339415, SINGAPORE
Tel: +65 6294-2211 Fax: +65 6299-6666
E-mail: bdk@mitutoyo.com.sg

24

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─BDK MEXICO

10

9Prolg. Eugenia No. 17, Col. Nápoles, C.P.03810
México D.F., MEXICO
Tel/Fax: +52(55)5669-1088
E-mail: bdkmexico@prodigy.net.mx

8

BDK SOUTH AMERICA 10
a/c Mitutoyo Sul Americana Ltda.
Av. João Carlos da Silva Borges, 1240 CEP 04726-002,
Cx. Postal 4255, Santo Amaro, São Paulo-SP, BRAZIL
Tel: +55(11)5643-0006 Fax: +55(11)5641-3745
E-mail: bdk@mitutoyo.com.br

BDK America
2014 Winners of the Toshihide Numata Book Prize
The Selection Committee of the
Toshihide Numata Book Prize selected two winners as the best books published on Buddhist Studies in 2013.
Administered by the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley’s Center for
Buddhist Studies, the award was presented to Dr. Erik Braun of the
University of Oklahoma for his book
The Birth of Insight: Meditation,
Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese
Monk Ledi Sayadaw, published by the
University of Chicago Press.
The second selected award winningbook was written by Dr. John Nelsonof the University of San Francisco.
His Experimental Buddhism:
Innovation and Activism inContemporary Japan, was publishedby the University of Hawai’i Press.
The Berkeley Administering
Committee sponsored the Book Prizeceremony and a symposium entitled“Buddhist Modernisms” on November
14, 2014 at the Jodo Shinshu Centerin Berkeley. Chairman of the Board
for BDK America, Dr. George
Tanabe, representing Chairman
Toshihide Numata and BDK America,presented the shared $10,000 cash
prize ($5,000 each) to the awardees.

Following presentations by the twoawardees, respondents Dr. Patrick
Pranke of the University of Louisville,
Dr. Richard Jaffee of Duke University
and Dr. Alexander von Rospatt of the
University of California, Berkeley
spoke on various aspects of Buddhist
Modernisms.
The “Toshi Prize” is now widely
respected in the field of Buddhist
Studies, and the selection committee
reviewed more than twenty-five submitted entries from various publishers

Dr. Erik Brawn

Dr. John Nelson

to determine the two recipients of the2014 Prize.

2014 Numata Program Coordinators Meeting
Each November, some 7,000 North
American and international professors
and students of religious studies gather for the annual conference of theAmerican Academy of Religion(AAR). Billed as the largest academic conference of its kind in the world,
this AAR conference also brings

together the North American coordinators of the various Numata
Programs in Buddhist Studies to share
information and discuss problems andconcerns for the Buddhist Studies
field in North America. The half-day
meeting concludes with an annual
appreciation dinner at a Japaneserestaurant hosted by BDK America
and BDK Canada to thank the coordinators for their continued support andefforts for the Numata Programs attheir respective institutions. The 2014conference was held in San Diego,
California and the 2015 conference25will be held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Attending this year’s meeting were(bottom row, left to right): Margaret
Mitchell, University of Chicago
Divinity School; Mark Rowe,
McMaster University; Janet Gyatso,
Harvard Divinity School; Robert

Sharf, UC Berkeley; Brian Nagata,
BDK America; George Tanabe, BDK
Hawaii; Charles Hallisey, Harvard
Divinity School; Christoph Emmrich,
Toronto; Regina Pfeifer, Chaminade,
Hawaii; Lara Bratstein, McGill (partially visible); Back Row: Mikio
Yamashita, BDK America; James

Benn, McMaster; Richard Payne,
Institute of Buddhist Studies; RobertBuswell, UCLA; Wendi Adamek,
Calgary; Scott Mitchell, Institute of
Buddhist Studies; Yasuo Honjo, BDK
Canada and Naoyuki Ogi, BDKJapan.

Dharma Talk Workshop for Ministers Sponsoredby BDK America
review and critique. “This may be afirst for us, in BCA, to have a ministers’ training session like this, dedicated to critiquing each other’s dharmatalks and getting feedback for
improvement,” said Center for
Buddhist Education Co-director, Rev.
Marvin Harada. “We really appreciate Dr. Tanabe’s guidance in thisdynamic and interactive workshop.”
Dr. Tanabe

BDK America sponsored a “Dharma
Talk Workshop” for twenty ministersof the Buddhist Churches of America(BCA) on November 11-13, 2014, at
the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley,
California. This exciting and challenging workshop was created andfacilitated by Dr. George Tanabe, professor emeritus in the Department ofReligion at the University of Hawaii
and current Chairman of the Board for
BDK America. Dharma talks were
given by the attendees, digitally
recorded, and then played back for“I appreciated that… after I delivereda dharma talk, other ministers gave
me some frank and honest opinions,”
Rev. Katsuya Kusunoki stated.

“Later, I deeply thought about how I
could improve my dharma talk withreference to their opinions. It was agood opportunity to reconsider mydharma talk.”“Thanks to Dr. Tanabe for his carefulplanning of the seminar on dharmatalks,” said Rev. Henry Adams. “Icame away from the seminar with abetter understanding of how I givedharma talks and areas in which I can
improve. As much as reflecting on
my own speaking, I was inspired byhearing other ministers speak. ”

Minister participants

In Memoriam
Reverend Seishin Kiyoshi Yamashita 1920 - 2015
On January 20, 2015, Reverend
Seishin Yamashita, the first director of
the Numata Center for Buddhist
Translation and Research, passed

26

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

away, just shy of his 95th birthday.

A second-generation JapaneseAmerican, Rev. Yamashita was bornin Auburn, Washington, graduatedfrom the University of Washington
and later Columbia University, majoring in Economics. During World War

II, Yamashita Sensei taught Japanese
linguistics to American Navy andArmy personnel. He began his formal
studies in Buddhism at the American
Buddhist Academy with Rev. Hozen
Seki in New York City. Upon the endof World War II, Sensei moved toJapan and worked for the UnitedStates Government as a Civil Service
intelligence officer. He received his
ordination (tokudo) into the Nishi
Hongwanji priesthood in 1950. Rev.
Yamashita, along with several otherNisei, would form the International
Buddhist Association at the Tsukiji
Hongwanji Betsuin in Tokyo, whichsponsored regular Sunday religious
services conducted in English, which
continue to this day.
In the early 1980’ s when Rev.
Yamashita decided it was time toreturn to America, he was approached
by BDK founder Rev. Dr. Yehan
Numata, who asked him if he would
assume the position as the initial
director and organizer for the planned
Numata Center for Buddhist
Translation and Research, whichfounder Numata was going to establish in Berkeley, California. Rev.
Yamashita heartily accepted this position which he held for 26 years until
his retirement in 2008.

for his many years of dedicated service, leadership and direction, which heprovided to the on-going BDKEnglish Tripitaka Series project.

Rev. Yamashita is survived by hiswife Marrie, sons Dennis and Rev.
Koshin Yamamoto, two sisters andfive grandchildren.
BDK expresses its deepest appreciation to Reverend Seishin Yamashita

Yamashita Sensei and Numata Kaicho in 2014

English Tripitaka Berkeley staff and friends celebrating Sensei’s 94th birthday in 2014

The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism Wins Award
Released at the end of 2013, the dictionary was edited by two ofAmerica’ s senior scholars of
Buddhism, Robert E. Buswell of
UCLA and Donald S. Lopez of the
University of Michigan. Now
deemed the most comprehensive dictionary of Buddhism ever produced in
English, it includes over 5,000 entries
totaling over one million words. It is
the first dictionary to cover terms
from all of the traditional Buddhist
languages and traditions---Sanskrit,
Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese andKorean. It also includes selected
terms in Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese,

Lao, Khmer, Sinhalese, Newar andMongolian.
This multi-year project was supported
by grants from the UCLA Numata
Fund in Buddhist Studies and by
BDK America.

and determination to publish the bestEnglish language Buddhist dictionaryof our time.

In January of this year, it was selected
as the 2014 recipient of the American
Library Association’s Dartmouth
Medal, honoring the best reference
work of the year.
We congratulate Dr. Buswell and Dr.
Lopez on their outstanding dedication27

Washington DC Ekoji Summer Obon Festival
The Washington DC Ekoji Temple’s
Obon festival is held each July andhas become a community event which
attracts nearly one thousand people
for an afternoon and evening ofJapanese cultural programs, community information booths, children’s
games, food, Nendaiko performance,
and traditional Obon Odori dance festival, culminating with a memorial
candle lighting ceremony and chanting of Buddhist sutras to remember
loved ones who have passed away.

When the meaning of Obon is
explained to non-members, most do
not hesitate to join in the Obon Odori
dancing and also to offer a candle inmemory of their respective loved
ones.
Temple founder Rev. Dr. Yehan
Numata and Rev. Kenryu Tsuji would
be happy to know that Ekoji’s observance of Obon has been a community-wide tradition and the temple members are sharing the Buddha-Dharma
with hundreds each summer.

BDK Hawaii
The year 2015 marks the 50th year
since BDK was established in Japan,
and it will be the 37th anniversary of
BDK Hawaii. We continue to carryout our main mission of distributing“The Teaching of Buddha(TTOB)”
and other materials to promote a better understanding of Buddhism. We
live in a time of rapid social and technological change, and we are finding
it necessary to develop new and different ways of realizing the original

28

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

vision of Rev. Dr. Yehan Numata.
In addition to placing books in hotels
and temples, we have extended ouroutreach through an eBook version of
TTOB, which is available as a Kindle
Book. In 2014, our Kindle version
was acquired by people in the U.S.,
U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, France,
Canada, Japan, India, Mexico andAustralia.

Recognizing that Buddhist ministers
are in need of continuing education
programs, we conducted workshops
to help ministers give better Dharmatalks, and to provide counseling services to their members. In cooperation
with the Buddhist Study Center of the
Honpa Hongwanji Mission, we conducted one Dharma talk workshop in
Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.
For 2015, we are planning to havenew workshops for Buddhist ministers’ wives, a group that is often taken
for granted and overlooked. LikeBDK Japan, we are also encouraging
the development of new Buddhist
music, but our target audience isyoung people, and we are therefore
working with local musicians to create ballads, hip-hop, jazz and rocksongs with Buddhist messages.
The BDK-Fujitani Interfaith Programis inviting a speaker to give a public
lecture on Buddhist-Muslim relations

in Myanmar, and also to have symposiums on Christian, Buddhist andJewish chanting and the symbolic
meanings of robes worn by ministersof these religious traditions.
We are constantly experiencing theBuddhist truth that everythingchanges. We face many new challenges, and BDK remains committed
to cooperating with as many people aspossible to find solutions based in theold traditions and new interpretationsof Buddhism.

BDK Hawaii staff

BDK Canada
BDK Support for “Flowers on the Rock”
In 2014, BDK Canada supported the
publication of a book entitled“Flowers on the Rock: Global andLocal Buddhisms in Canada” edited
by Canadian religious studies professors John S. Harding, Victor Hori andAlexander Soucy. It not only records
the histories of various Buddhist paths
as they came to Canada but also therole and changes undertaken in thesepaths as they evolved in Canada.

BDK Fellowship Recipient – Chris Jensen
The independent BDK Fellowship
Selection Committee has selected
Chris Jensen as the next BDK
Fellowship recipient to study in Japanfor one year beginning in June 2014.
Jensen is a PhD candidate in Chinese
Buddhism at McMaster University
under the supervision of Dr. James
Benn and will be at Kyoto University
working with Professor Funayama
Toru.
Chris is a scholar of medieval Chinese
Buddhism and his dissertation is provisionally entitled "Oneiric Visions
and Social Realities: Dream
Narratives in Medieval East Asian

Buddhism.” He studies dreams inmedieval East Asian miracle tales andis interested in discovering how toaccess the dream worlds of medieval
East Asia. His research explores how
dream visions helped to define thewaking experience of religion, andhow dreams were discussed, exploredand contested in Buddhist literature.
The BDK Canada Fellowship
Program was established by BDK
Canada and is administered by
McMaster University in Hamilton,
Canada. Every two years, a recipientis selected by an independent andanonymous team of scholars. Several

29

recipients have gone on to become
scholars in their own right and arecontributing to the advancement of
Buddhist Studies in North America

while several others are finishing up
their Ph.D. programs at this time.

Toronto Vesak Festival
For several years now, BDK Canada
has joined together with the Toronto
Buddhist Church to participate in theToronto Vesak Festival honoring
Shakyamuni Buddha. Copies of “The
Teaching of Buddha” and lapel pinswith short Buddhist teachings are distributed to the several thousand in
attendance at each year’s festival.

BDK Mexico
Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK)
Mexico has offered a variety ofopportunites for children to adults to
get to know Buddhism better.
Especially at Ekoji Temple, we havemeditation, Yoga, Zazen, and martial
arts classes. Moreover, we conduct
Sosensai, Buddhist weddings,
Buddhist anniversary services andmany other activies and services foreveryone.
For the last few years, we havereceived many requests for seminars
and lectures at schools. At Alva
Edison University in Pebra, Mr. Leon,the chancellor, has distributed “The
Teaching of Buddha (TTOB)” to all
faculty members and students eventhough he is a Catholic. He believes
that the schools are “the places formoral education” and “Buddhism and
TTOB are the best textbook for students to develop what they learned at
a school in a real world.”
In July, 2014, Mr and Mrs. Shinzo
Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, vis-30

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─BDK Mexico staff

ited Mexico, and Mr and Mrs. Katsura
from “CHAEN,” a Japanese tea salón,
opened a facility inside the Ekoji
Temple in 2010. They have been
invited to the welcoming banquet
hosted by the Japanese Embassy.
Mrs. Katsura is an expert of Kendo,
Japanese sword fighting, and shepracticed with a former prime minister, Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto, when hevisited Mexico before.
The economy of Mexico has developed dramatically in the last decades,
however, the crime rate is also getting
higher because the strife between theformer government and the druggangs has intensified. In this kind ofchaotic condition of society, theBuddhist emphasis on a peaceful andharmonious world is important.
Ekoji Temple hopes that people wouldchange their preconceptions andreturn to a simple and secure way oflife. We always consider people’s feel-ings and wish to provide more activities for everyone.

BDK South America“The Teaching of Buddha” in Portuguese (right)“Shiori” for Sosensai at Mitutoyo South America(left)

added a Portuguese translation on one
side so that more employees are able
to understand what it says and what itmeans correctly. As a result, they cancomprehend the significance ofSosensai itself.

BDK South America staff

In 2014, the FIFA World Cup games
were held in Brazil. The results forTeam Japan were not good at all,however, what we saw on TV after
the game amazed people in the world.
Japanese supporters picked up piecesof trash and cleaned their seats after
the game. These scenes expressed the
feeling that we should clean up ourown mess first. It also was a good
example of “Ichigu-wo-TerasumonokosoTakara-nari,” which expresses the ideathat we can still make efforts toimprove on a situation that we havebeen already given. We have tried totake simple steps and focus on thebasic mission of BDK South America,

and to develop the distribution of“The Teaching of Buddha” to the nextlevel.

For 2014, we have distributed “The
Teaching of Buddha” as the graphs
show; about 583 copies per a monthfor temples and 211copies per monthfor hotels.

From that point of view, BDK SouthAmerica has revised “The Teaching of
Buddha” in Portuguese with more
modern expressions in accordancewith opinions received from readers.
We know that the times and readers
are always moving forward andchanging.
Mitutoyo South America has a monthly Sosensai service and uses a text
called “Shiori.” Shiori used to be written only in Japanese, however, we

31

BDK Taiwan
ers asked us to send books to themafter the exhibition.

BDK Taiwan staff

BDK Taiwan celebrated its 25th
anniversary in 2014, and all kinds ofactivities were held to commemorate
it. First, we established BDK exhibition areas both in Mitutoyo Taiwan’s
new Taichung office in April and the
new Kaohsiung office in November.
We introduced Buddhism and BDK
through the newly-made Chinese panels and leaflets. As a result, more people became interested in “ The
Teaching of Buddha,” and many oth-

BDK Taiwan held its 25th anniversary
ceremony on November 13, andChairman Numata, and Managing
Director Ikuta from BDK Japan wereinvited to join us. In the ceremony,
we not only reported on activities
sponsored around the world, but, we
also invited President Myoho Asari,
who has a yeast business with a history of over three hundred years in Oita,
to give a speech to us based on theconcept of healthy body and mind.
After the speech, a simple cuisine
made from her yeast was prepared forattendees, and everyone had a positive
reaction to it.
Professor Ben-Hang Chang, who is
not only President of BDK Taiwan,
but is also a prominent calligrapher,demonstrated his calligraphy with twoother calligraphers in the ceremony.
The calligraphy was given as precious
souvenirs to the lucky attendees
selected by drawing lots. In all ofthese ways, we had a good commemoration of our 25th anniversary.

BDK Europe
Worldwide Numata Chair Coordinators meeting
Coinciding with the Congress of theInternational Association of Buddhist
Studies, a meeting of the coordinatorsof the worldwide Numata chairs program took place in Vienna on August19, 2014 (local time). It was the firstmeeting of this kind since the establishment of the Bukkyo Dendo
Kyokai (public benefit foundation).
With its aspiration to spread the spiritof Japanese Buddhism and its culture
throughout the world, and to promote

32

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

academic studies, the Bukkyo Dendo
Kyokai established in 1984 the first
Numata Chair for Buddhist studies at
the University of California, Berkeley.
Since this time, other Numata chairs
have been established throughout theworld at important universities. At
present there are Numata chairs at 15
universities: seven in the US(University of California/Berkeley,
Harvard University, University of
Chicago, Smith College, University of
Hawai’i and University of California/Los

Angeles), three in Canada (Universityof Toronto, University of Calgary and
McGill University), and five inEurope (University of Oxford,
University of London, University of
Hamburg, University of Leiden andUniversity of Vienna). (At the
University of Oxford and the Harvard
University, full-time Numata Chairsfor Buddhist Studies were initiated).
Thirty years after the establishment of
the first Numata chair, the academic

BDK Europe/Ekō-Haus staff

teachers who coordinate the Numata
chairs program throughout the world,came together in a meeting. In total,
there were 22 participants: 13 coordinators from 11 of the 15 universities
and nine people from the foreign

administration staff of the Bukkyo
Dendo Kyokai.
Presided over by Prof. Shōryū
Katsura (Ryūkoku University), themeeting was opened with an addressby Chairman Toshihide Numata.
After the activities of the Numata programs were reported from every university, participants discussed ideas
about the direction in which the programs can be developed in the future.
The Numata professors at the various
universities are internationally recognized scholars in Buddhist studies,work at first-rate universities in theirrespective countries, and are training
many young scholars and recipients of
the BDK Fellowship. Bukkyo Dendo
Kyokai, plays a big role in promoting
Buddhist studies throughout the world
through its Numata chairs and otherprograms.

Information Booth at the Congress of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies
The XVIIth Congress of theInternational Association of Buddhist
Studies was held in Vienna from
August 18 to August 23, 2014. Thisconference, which takes place triennially, is the largest congress for academic Buddhist Studies worldwide,
and attracts leading Buddhist scholars
from all over the world.
Since the conference took place inEurope, most of the participants werescholars from Europe or America, butmany participants came also fromJapan, and even from other Asian
countries like Korea, China, Taiwan,
India or Thailand. The University of
Vienna is well-known for studies inIndian and Tibetan philosophy andBuddhism, because authorities in thisarea such as Prof. Erich Frauwallner
and Prof Ernst Steinkellner belong to
its teaching staff. Now Prof. KlausDieter Mathes (Numata chair coordi-

nator), who follows in this tradition,
was in charge as coordinator of thewhole conference.
In order to inform the Buddhist scholars attending this conference about its
activities and publications, theBukkyo Dendo Kyokai hosted an
information booth presenting not only

“The Teaching of Buddha” and the
BDK Tripitaka Translation Series, butalso publications of the German EkōCenter of Buddhist Culture (Hōrin,Das Große Wörterbuch desBuddhismus etc.). On a big monitor in
the center of the booth, visitors could
watch a documentary on the development and activities of the Bukkyo

33

Dendo Kyokai.
During the breaks of the conference, alarge number of people surrounded
the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai booth andexamined the exhibited publications
with interest. Because most of the participants of the Conference werescholars, the BDK Tripiṭaka

JAPAN DAY

About 7,000 Japanese live in thewider area of Düsseldorf, where theEKŌ-house of Japanese Culture islocated, and every year in May orJune, Japan Day (Nihon Day) is celebrated. Events like Japan Day, which
are promoted by the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, take place in various
cities, but the Japan Day in
Düsseldorf attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year. At lastyear’s Japan Day, which was held on
March 17, 2014, an especially large
crowd of people could be seen at theriverside promenade along the Rhine,
the site of the main events.
As a special event on the eve of Japan
Day, the Ekō Center presented in the
Ekō temple a shinobue (Japanesetransverse flute) concert performed by
Mr. Satoshi Katano. Mr. Katano, who
is from Sawara in Chiba prefecture, isa master of the Sawara folk musicstyle and had won the Gold Prize, as
well as the Governor’s Proze and theSpecial Prize at the First Japanese
Shinobue Contest. This concert was
Mr. Katano’s third concert in a row
within three years, but his concerts
always receive favorable reception.
This time many people were alreadywaiting in front of the entrance before
the hall was opened, and soon afterwards all of the more than hundredseats inside the temple had beentaken. It was so crowded that many34

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─Translation Series attracted their interest and many people could be seen
examining the books carefully.
Moreover, many visitors showedinterest in the Numata Chair programand scholarships and asked for more
information.
In the afternoon of August 20, Mr.

Ōgi from the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai
gave in the Lecture Hall of the
Iuridicum a presentation on the
Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and the
Numata Chairs in Buddhist Studies atvarious universities around the world,which attracted the interest of theaudience.

people had to stand outside the temple
hall in order to enjoy the concert.
With a diverse program, ranging from
Sawara folk music to Mr. Katano’s
own compositions, the performancelasted about two hours, and the audience listened to this marvelous concert until the end.
As in former years, Ekō Center granted free entrance to the Japanese
Garden, the tea house and the Ekōtemple. Under a cloudless, blue sky,
more than a thousand people visitedthe Ekō Center during its open hours
between 1 and 6 o’clock p.m. Many
visitors came not only from Germany,
but also from the Netherlands andBelgium. Among them were many
cos-players – young people who are
dressed up with costumes influenced
by Japanese anime characters. An
exhibition of paintings by Makoto
Ueno, which took place in the Kyōsei
Hall of the Ekō Center, was also very
crowded on that day. Scheduled only
for 11 days including the Japan Day,
this art exhibition attracted more than
800 people.
Many Japanese food stands and information booths about Japanese culture
lined the riverside promenade of theRhine, and at the main stage of theevent many performances took place.
The children of the Ekō kindergarten
performed some children songs, andthe dancer, Tomokinu Hanayagi, who
is in charge of Japanese dance courses
in the Ekō Center, gave a performancewith her ensemble. According to anannouncement of the Japan Club,
750,000 people came to the JapanDay celebration this year, the highest
number of visitors compared with past
years. Finally at about 11pm the annual Japanese firework on the Rhine
started and a very bustling Japan Day
came to an end.

BDK UK
Signing Ceremony for the Establishment of a Full-Time
Numata Professorship for Japanese Buddhist Studies at
the University of London
October 7, 2014.

Toshihide Numata, chairman, andTadashi Ikuta, executive director,
were welcomed from the BDK headquarters in Japan. Paul Webley, chancellor of the University of London,
Lucia Dolce, the first Numata
Professor, and many other students
and program members also attended
the ceremony. A shakuhachi performance during the ceremony gave afriendly and welcoming touch. It wassuch a great opportunity to deepen thesolid relationship between BDK and
the University of London.

Dr.Paul Webley(left) and BDK chairman, Numata(right)

The School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS) at the University of
London has had the Numata Programin Buddhist Studies since 1992. Now
Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) has
established a full-time professorshipespecially for Japanese Buddhist
Studies and a signing ceremony washeld at the University of London on

BDK UK staff

Obituary – Our Great Friend and Supporter,
Rev. Ganshin E. Rock

Rev. Ganshin E. Rock contributed
greatly to Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai(BDK) activities, especially in the distribution of “ The Teaching of
Buddha” and the spread of Buddhism
in the UK since 1991. He passed
away in a hospital in Southampton on
September 1, 2014, at the age of 88.
For the last 23 years, Rev. Rock sup-ported the development of BDK UK
and taught the basic ideas of
Buddhism to local people in the UK.
We truly appreciate his huge contribution for decades and express our deepest condolences. His passing is a greatloss.

Rev. Ganshin E. Rock35

Inochi (Life)“Inochi”(Life).“Jumyō”(span of life).The force
that makes an organism a living thing. There isin the word “inochi” the sense of “the mostimportant part of things.”
Lately, however, “ inochi” (life) and“seimei”(life) are often used with different
meanings. That is, when “inochi”[using thecharacters for “seimei”] is used, it means theforce that causes this body to be a [living] body.
It is limited to the time that this body exists inthis world.
In contrast to this, when “inochi”(life) is used, it
relates to that which passes through from thepast before the birth of this body, through existence in this world at this time, to the future36

BDK Newsletter Michi ─The Path─

after the extinction of this body, and what makes
me who “I” am.
The existence that is “I” is not just the existencethat lasts while this body exists in this world. If
it concerns only the time that this body exists inthis world, the being called “I” arises from nothingness and the being called “I” becomes nothingness.
Through I may not understand it, I am “I” in thepast and in the future. That is the way of thinking of “inochi.”(Taken from “Sasaeatte” authored by Toshihide
Numata, Chairman of BDK)