Lifestyle // Misfit Spirit

Shinto Shrine Bridges Differences
Posted on May 21, 2014 by Jay Sakashita

Melvin Monces (center) with Diane Nishida, a member of the Kotohira Jinsha shrine’s
board and scholarship committee, and Rev. Masa Takizawa | Photo from Melvin Monces

Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii
Dazaifu Tenmangu (hereafter
Kotohira Jinsha) is a Shintoshrine. And despite its long,awkward-sounding foreign name,it is an active shrine that enjoys anotable tradition of interactingwith the local community.
Every New Year’s Day, forexample, more than 10,000 people
visit the shrine for blessings, food,and the purchase of good luck
charms.
More people than that driveby the shrine each day, as it sits
alongside the eastbound lanes ofthe freeway between Farrington
High School and Liliha. And
depending on the afternoon traffic,
if you are lucky you can set yourcamera to time-lapse mode andcapture the sunset behind theshrine as your car crawls by.

Many also stop in at Kotohira Jinsha on a regular basis, as the shrine has ties to a dance academy, martial
arts school and preschool.
At Kotohira Jinsha, one’s religious beliefs or cultural background doesn’t matter – gratitude for life andrespect for tradition are enough. The tradition cultivated at Kotohira Jinsha is in good hands, as it is nurtured
and guided by Rev. Masa Takizawa and his wife Irene.
Preserving tradition is not easy, though, especially when attempts are made to forcibly take it away. Just
after the Second World War, the federal government raided the shrine, seized its property, and put it up forsale. Anti-Japanese sentiments were still strong then. However, the shrine challenged these actions, andKotohira Jinsha became the first Japanese-based organization to successfully bring a lawsuit against theUnited States. Its property and tradition were returned, though it lost two-thirds of its property again in 1957
to make room for the Lunalilo Freeway.
Kotohira Jinsha is actually a collection of smaller shrines, one of which – Tenmangu – is traditionallydedicated to education.
To perpetuate this connection, the shrine holds a Back-to-School Education Blessing for all students inAugust, graciously hosts students visiting on field trips, and recently began to offer a scholarship to deserving
students studying religion at Leeward Community College. Melvin Monces was this year’s recipient.

Melvin’s father passed away when Melvin was in the third grade. Apolinario Monces had worked
at Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Co. on Maui, where he was good friends with a fellow plantation
worker, a Japanese man named Kyle Tokunaga.
As an expression of their friendship, every December Mr. Tokunaga gave Melvin’s dad akadomatsu-a bamboo, pine and plum blossom display tied together with straw rope that is placedoutside the door of a home as a symbol of good luck – as a wish for health and prosperity for
Melvin’s family.
His mother Maria continued to place a kadomatsu in front of their house even after her husband
and his plantation friend passed away, as a reminder of the friendship the two men shared thatbridged ethnic, religious and cultural differences.
Growing up, Melvin did not bother to ask about the yearly decorative display, as it was simply oneof several traditions his mother kept. In his study of religion however, Melvin began to understandthe significance of the kadomatsu and appreciate the meaning it had in Japanese culture, and now for
his family tradition as well. One tradition became a path for understanding another.
Soon he began to find examples of common themes found in both Japanese and Filipino cultures.
Melvin shared these findings with me, and I suggested two possible explanations for this:Either certain values are universal in nature and are therefore shared by different cultural
traditions, or Filipinos are really Japanese in disguise, and vice versa.
In honor of the tradition of friendship that Melvin’s father and his friend shared, and that Melvin’s
mother preserved – which Melvin now inherits – Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu
awarded its educational scholarship to Melvin last month.
Gratitude can arise from different sources, and traditions can be created anew. And sometimes
traditions are worth preserving and celebrating, even if they were not originally your own.
Email the author misfitspirit808@gmail.com