Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha - Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu
FEBRUARY 2024

Flight is a miraculous gift to humanity. Established in 1951, JAL is one of the world's premier
carriers and continues to provide a prompt, safe and secure travel experience for allMAHALO for your generous Donations

CALENDAR

Keng Hsien Chao

James & Melba Kurashige

Earl & Toyoko Okawa

MARCH

Bill & Keiko Doughty

Noah Kutaka

Lois Okawa

Omar & Joyce Faufata

Mike Lee

Akiko Sanai

Jon Faufata

Matt & Jenn McNeff

Gary & Linda Shinsato

Scott Faufata

Yae Miko

Robert Stallings

Bryson & Reiko Goda

Steve Miwa

Sharon Tanigawa

APRIL

Arthur Isa

Mavis Mizumoto

Naomi Teramoto

13 1 pm

Arthur & Becky Isa

Roy Morioka

Yusuke Watanabe

Rodney & Sharon Isa

Shinken & Marilyn Naitoh

Lena YoungJapan Airlines

Craig & Diane Nishida

32 pm
Sake Appreciation Festival

Cleanup and preparations
142 pmSpring Thanksgiving Festival

Setsubun literallymeans "the changing of theseasons. "When seasons change, people are attheir most vulnerable physical stateand often catch colds, influenza andother illnesses.
Setsubun is meant to purge the homeof negativity and to keep disease andmisfortunes away.

Scholarship Awards

MAY
52 pm
Tsukinamisai Monthly Service

26 8 am (INTERNAL)
Memorial Day Service

GOKITO Private Blessings
Cultural traditions connect us
to our past and creates asense of continuity acrossgenerations.
Annual Kanai Anzen Family
blessings were performed forshrine friends for a bright,
healthy and peaceful newyear.

A 16th year Memorial Service wasperformed for a dear friend.

Rituals like Yakudoshi blessings help to unlock the cultural andspiritual gifts from our ancestors.

GOKITO Private Blessings

A House Blessing was performedfor a home in St. Louis Heights.
St. Louis School was established in1846 as the College of Ahuimanu toserve the Catholic community of
the Hawaiian Kingdom and counts
Governor John Burns and Father
Damien of Molokai as graduates.
St. Louis School moved to its
present location in Kaimuki in 1928.
204 acres in the mountainous areasof Kalaepohaku were purchasedfrom Bishop Estate for the school.

Father Bertram founded the Societyof Marianists in Hawaii.

To finance the construction of theschool - 80 acres were sold on
which the first St. Louis Heights
homes were built.

Monsignor Gulston Ropert served
as the Vicar apostolic of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

In 1955, the Marianists establishedSaint Louis Junior College (later
named Chaminade College in 1957
and Chaminade University in 1977.)
The streets on St. Louis Heights is
said to have been named by Paul
Low and James Hara, developersof the Heights who chose names of
early members of the Order whostarted St. Louis School, beginningwith the letter A.
Alencastre was named for Stephen
Alencastre - the Catholic Bishop for
Hawaii from 1924 to 1940.

Brothers Eugene, Felix and Frank
were instructors at St. LouisCollege.
Maigret Street was named forBishop Louis-Desire Maigret who
oversaw Our Lady of Peace
Cathedral on Fort Street.
Libert Street was named after Vicar
Libert Boeynaems of the Order ofthe Sacred Hearts.
St. Louis Heights is now acommunity of single family homes
with panoramic views of DiamondHead, Waikiki and the PacificOcean.

SAGICHO - burning of the old omamori and ofuda
The annual Sagicho was performedon Sunday, January 21.

Juyohin such as omamori and ofuda
at the beginning of the year.

Sagicho is an ancient ceremony
originating in China to express
appreciation to and purify byburning old Juyohin which includes
ofuda, omamori, kumade, hamaya,
porcelain decorations andhamayumi that were blessed at ashrine or temple.

When you visit the shrine at
Hatsumode, we would appreciate
your depositing old omamori andother juyohin in the hut by Jan u ar y
7 of each year.

Renewal is central to Japanesetradition and as such, we renew

shipping boxes full of old juyohin
which required around two weeks
to prepare them for proper
purification and burning.

All plastic casings and metal
decorations are painstakingly
removed prior to Sagicho, toprevent toxic fumes from harming
the environment.
This year the shrine collected 49

Mahalo Nui to all that participatedin Sagicho for their kokua inprepping and burning all the items.
The winds were blowing at 7-8
miles per hour and it was slightly
overcast - - creating perfectconditions for the burning of theold omamori.

Visit our website at www.jinja.usWith the overwhelming number of
items that are turned in, we are nolonger able to accept items thatwere not blessed at a shrine ortemple. That includes:

newsletters and calendars fromshrines and temples.

for their protection and discard itwith your regular trash.

Mochi should be consumed.

Mahalo for your kokua inperpetuating the traditions ofSagicho.

SAGICHO - burning of
the old omamori
If you are unable to bring old- kadomatsu- Ihai tablets (for proper disposal,
Ihai tablets should be returned to
the Buddhist temple that
performed your ancestor 's funeral)- Mochi, Salt, Sand, Saiwaigami
paper, New Years decorations(shime kazari)

omamori to the shrine or if you
have new years decorations,kadomatsu, mochi, etc that youwould like to dispose - - place theitems not accepted by the shrine ina bag, sprinkle Hawaiian salt or any
sea salt over it, thank the omamori

MAHALO VOLUNTEERS
Arthur Isa, Jr.
Becky Isa
Juston Isa
David Jimenez
Marilyn Naitoh- Souvenirs and omamori-like items
from retail stores- personal items - clothing, letters,
jewelry, accessories, books, dolls,
plush, etc.
Please discard packaging from theomamori, explanation cards,

View event photos at: www.flickr.com/kotohira-dazaifu

Shinken Naitoh
Craig NishidaDiane NishidaLinda Shinsato

MAINTENANCE
The annual
cleaning of thelight fixtures
andreplacement ofthe light bulbs
in both shrines
was done on2/15.

Mahalo Nui to Mike
Lee for fabricating
and installing Mylar
sheets to cover andprotect the Torolantern light source.
Toro lanterns are
originally from China
and made of stone
to decorate shrinesand gardens.

Kumamoto andHiroshima.

Many Toro lanterns
were exported toJapan, Vietnam andKorea around 700
CE.

In 1935, the two Torowere loaded onto aboat and shipped toHonolulu.

The shrine's Toro
was donated by Iseis
that hailed from
Yamaguchi, Fukuoka,

The individual
sections are held
together by gravity,
not glue.

An energy
efficient bulb
not only saves
energy andmoney, but isbrighter andlasts longer
thanincandescentbulbs.

FERAL ANIMALSThe shrine has a feral animal
problem.
The Hawaiian Humane Society
reports that each day hundredsof feral kittens are born inHawaii.
A female cat can become
pregnant at 16 weeks and go on
to have two or three litters ayear.
ASPCA data shows that in sevenyears, a single female cat andtheir kittens can produce420,000 more cats.
Feral cats gather where there
are resources - - food, water andshelter and often live in vacantlots, eat trash and eventually
face disease and an endlesscycle of pregnancy.
Feral cats have been leaving
issues in the shrine - - odor,

feces, urine and eventually apossible flea infestation.
Cats can also carry rabbies.
The Hawaiian Humane Society's
solution is the Trap-NeuterReturn Program to end theoverpopulation of feral cats.
Hawaii Humane Society instructs
the public to trap the cats, makean appointment to have themneutered or spayed and pickthem up to return them to their
original colonies so they cancontinue to live out their lives.
They are apathetic to the feral
chicken problem and offer nosolutions. You can trap chickens
with a permit but will be subject
to City & County rules regarding
animal cruelty.
We now must disinfect daily andbomb the shrine weekly forpossible fleas.

abuse making it difficult
to maintain employment
and residential stability.
An African American
male trespassed onto
shrine property on 2/15.
He was wielding a metal
rod and pounding theconcrete stairs, railingsand decorations.

Homelessness hit arecord high in 2023 with
4,038 homeless people in
Hawaii.
1 in 3 people who arehomeless report having a
combination of mental
illness and substanceHe then proceeded to thepreschool with rod in
hand and began twirling
the rod outside thewindow, but in thepresence of the children
and teachers.
911 was called however,there was no response by
any officers.

This is the 3rd time thismale has entered theproperty and is beginningto show aggression andpossible violent behavior.

prevent this mentally
imbalanced male fromentering the premises
again or being a danger
to himself or others.

An Online Police Report.
was filed. The shrine
could have pressedcriminal charges for theproperty damages
however, the grim reality
is that neither criminal
charges nor a TRO would

Without civil commitment
and better mental healthservices, the homelesswith untreated addictions
or mental illnesses willcontinue to cycle
between the streets, jailand psychiatric hospitals.