Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha
Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu

APRIL 2021

Natori instructors of Hanayagi Dancing Academy led by principal Hanayagi Mitsujyuro, held their annual New Years blessing

DONATIONSBill & Keiko Doughty
Rodney & Sharon Isa
James & Melba Kurashige
Yae Miko
Steve Miwa
Shinken & Marilyn Naitoh
Craig & Diane Nishida
Akiko Sanai
Gary & Linda Shinsato
Robert Stallings
Kai Suzuki
Alice Uratsuka
Fung & Yumi Yang
Hanayagi Dancing
Academy HI Foundation
Gayle Fujihara
Bryson Goda
Kathy Hamada-Kwock
Stacie HataLorraine Kadota
Elaine Komatsu

Diane NishidaLillian Okamura
Clyde Shiigi
Jensen Toma
Sharon Toma
Jasmine Umeno

The annual blessing for the Hanayagi
Dancing Academy Hawaii Foundation(HDAHF) was performed on March 28.
The Academy was established by Hanayagi
Mitsuaki I (Viola Hosokawa) in 1947 toperpetuate the Japanese spirit throughdance, shamisen and Nagauta style singing.
Her legacy was preserved and shared by
Mitsuaki II (Karen Fujishima-Lee).

Bryson Goda

Hanayagi Mitsujyuro (Bryson Goda) remains
firmly committed to fulfilling Mitsuaki I andMitsuaki II's legacy and has awarded Natori
Instructor 's licenses to one student of
Nihonbuyo dance and two students ofshamisen.

Hanayagi Dancing
Academy HI Foundation

Congratulations to:

Islander Sake Brewery

Han ayagi-r yu Sch ool of Nih on bu yo

SAKE - BEERDONATIONS
Dean & Natsuko Fujimoto

Shinken & Marilyn Naitoh
Craig & Diane Nishida
Gary & Linda Shinsato
Masa & Irene Takizawa
Nadine Uratsuka

Hanayagi Mitsusae - Jasmine Umeno
Kin eya Sch ool of Nagau t aKineya Sakiko - Lillian Okamura
Kineya Sakikazu - Clyde Shiigi

GOKITO Private Blessings

A Blessing was performed for baby
Lynn on 3/16

Yakudoshi Blessing - being gratefulfor the good things in life

Yakudoshi Blessing to ensure asafe, healthy and peaceful year

We rejoice with you as you celebrate
your Beiju 88th birthday!!!

A Beiju (88th Birthday)
Blessing was
performed for ashrine friend on 3/27.

achievements, honor
their sacrifices and to
thank them for theirlove and wisdom.

of ripening rice plants
in the rice fields andof abundance andprosperity.

Beiju or Yone no Oiwai
is a significant life
milestone and amajor cause forcelebration in Japan.

Beiju is a play on kanji
characters - when 88
is written in kanji, itresembles thecharacter for rice.

Beiju Blessings are away to celebrate thecelebrant's

The color for Kanreki
is red. For Beiju, it isyellow or gold - colors

Common gifts to
those celebrating
Beiju are rice, sake(made from rice) andyellow or gold
chanchanko
vests.

Tango no Sekku or Boy's Day finds
it origin approximately 2,300 years
ago in China and is thought tohave been imported to Japan in
the 7th century.
Qu Yuan (340 - 278 BCE) astatesman and renown poet was amember of the Chu royal clan in
ancient China and served as an
official under King Huai of Chu.
Qu Yuan was exiled because ofslander by corrupt ministers atcourt and was reinstated but sent
to posts outside his home state.
Exiled a second time by King Qing
Xiang, Qu Yuan suffered fromfailing health and depression.
He committed suicide on the 5th
day of the 5th lunar month bywading into the Miluo River.
Legend has it that villagers carried
dumplings and set out in boats tothe Miluo River to save Qu Yuan.

In ancient China, it was thoughtthat carps that swam upstream
eventually became dragons.
In order to keep the dragons andevil spirits away from his body,
villagers beat drums, splashed thewater with their paddles andthrew rice into the river as foodofferings to his spirit.
One night the spirit of Qu Yuan
appeared before his friends andtold them to wrap rice into threecornered silk packages to ward off
the dragons. These packages
became Jung, a dim sum made ofmochi rice which are now wrappedin lotus leaves instead of silk.
The act of racing to search for Qu
Yuan's body became the traditionof Dragon Boat racing, held on the5th day of the 5th lunar month the anniversary of his death.
This tradition of revering Qu Yuan
was observed in Japan by theimperial court and warrior class as
Tango no Sekku or Boy's Day - also
on the 5th day of the 5th lunarmonth.
Japanese warrior dolls, dolls ofChinese heroes and Japanese
implements of battle along withcarps are used to decorate homes
in hopes to ward off evil and growstrong, honest, courageous andloyal sons.

CALENDARAPRIL25

3:00 pm (INTERNAL)
Spring Thanksgiving Festival &Scholarship Awards

MAY2

3:00 pm (INTERNAL)
Tsukinami-sai Monthly Service30

8:00 am (CANCELED)
Shinto Renmei Memorial Day ServiceJUNE
69:00 am (CANCELED)
Chinowa for People & Pets
3:00 pm (INTERNAL)
Tsukinami-sai Monthly Service

HONCHOM ean in g: person at the top of his or her game, boss,
big shotOr igin : The term Honcho dates back to around 1945,
as World War II was coming to an end.
American prisoners-of-war learned the word while incaptivity as they would hear Japanese squad leadersreferred to as ? ? Hancho by the soldiers.
Army medic Ernest Norquist was a POW in a Japanesecamp in the Philippines and kept a diary throughout histime on scraps of candy and cigarette wrappers. In apublished version of his diary, frequent referenceswere made to the "Honchos who ran the prison camp."
Not long after the war ended, General Eisenhower
himself was called the "Chief Honcho" in a 1952 Los
Angeles Times article.
Since, Honcho is used to describe someone who showscourage and leadership.

Words to live by....
Since ancient times, the Japanese
have repeatedly used threephrases of Shinto origin in their
daily lives -bachi ga ataru, mottai
nai and arigatai.
I?m sure many of you have heard
the word bachi or the term bachi
ga ataru somewhere, sometime inyour lives.
Bachi is a variant form of batsu or
Shin-batsu which means divine
retribution inflicted on someone
who speaks or acts in adisrespectful or unbelieving way
towards a kami.
In English, a similar phrase would
be ?what goes around, comesaround.?
Here in Hawaii, ?you?re going toget bachi? seems to sum it allwhen you?ve done something you
shouldn?t have.

A rough English equivalent ofmottai nai would be ?what awaste.? Literally, it means ?I am
unworthy to be a recipient ofthese goods or services? and is aphrase which evolved from theShinto concept of expressing
gratitude for the bounties that we
receive from nature and the needfor reflection on the forces thatsustain us.
The word "waste" has a negative
nuance such as useless or
worthless in the English language.
However, in Japanese "waste"
expresses regret that a thingwhich is still useful isn't used to its
fullest potential. This can be used
for people, opportunities,
situations, etc.
Arigatai is a form of arigato whichliterally means ?something which

is difficult.?
The term began as a phrase toexpress how rare it was for one toencounter a kind act, which
eventually evolved into the phrase?
arigatai, arigato or thank you.
The word arigatai is seen in
ancient text, however, the word
arigato was not used to express
thanks until the mid-1600s.
Arigatai or expressing gratitude to
our ancestors, parents, nature,acquaintances, etc. is thefoundation of Shinto.
Gratitude is also said to make us
resilient to life's challenges both
physiologically andpsychologically andsaid to strengtheninterpersonalrelationships.

MAINTENANCE
Omamori sighting inTaiwan

Keeping trees and shrubs in goodcondition involves regular careand pruning to help conserve atree's energy, manage its size andchange its shape.
The shrine's Ficus Benjamina waspruned on 4/10 to remove deadand diseased branches, thin thecanopy and maintain optimum
health.
TheCLICK leaves are the energy andfood producing centers of a tree,
HERE
pruning live tissues will always

have an impact on growth.
However pruning dead tissues
and branches simply clears themaway without impacting growth
and will help control the size andshape of the canopy.

We received a photo of a
Yakudoshi omamori amidst
sakura blossoms in Kaohsiung,Taiwan.
The word omamori comes fromthe word mamoru ? ? or toprotect.
Mahalo Jill for keeping your
Yakudoshi omamori with you,wherever you go.