PURE LAND IN A NEW LAND
The New York Buddhist Church
And The Japanese American Identity
INTRODUCTION
As Japanese immigrants made their way to the United States in the later part of the 19th century, they faced stiff segregational attitudes from Americans reacting to decades of Chinese immigration. In contrast with the Chinese, who proudly donned traditional dress and culture, the Japanese sought to quickly assimilate themselves into Western culture. Not only did they appear in Western dress, the Issei, or first generation Japanese immigrants to North and South America, worked to acculturate their religious beliefs and practices as part of a larger effort of becoming American. Jōdo Shinshū, also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, was brought to the United States as Japan’s most widely practiced school of Buddhism.
While the practices associated with Jōdo Shinshū departed from the traditional, dogmatic Theravāda Buddhist practices in the 12th and 13th century, its arrival to the United States would further influence the way the sect practiced its rituals. Following the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, Shin temples grappled with rebuilding Japanese American communities alongside a tentative outreach to non-Japanese. The New York Buddhist Church (NYBC), founded on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1938, serves as an emblematic synthesis of Jōdo Shinshū's Kyoto roots and American Christian theology. This synthesis is central to the Japanese American identity, particularly in the shadow of the racism, segregation, and internment many Issei and Nisei faced in the United States.
PART 1 - BUDDHISM: SHIN CONTRA THERAVĀDA
The story of Buddhism begins in Lumbini, now modern Nepal, with the birth of Siddhartha Gautama almost 2,600 years ago. Born to a royal family, Prince Siddhartha would renounce his lineage to become a wandering aesthetic. After enlightenment through meditation at Bodh Gaya, Page of 14 3 now in modern India, the Buddha, or “The Awakened One,” would develop a monastic order that would take root in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, south of the Himalayas. The spread of Buddhism following the death of Siddhartha was marked by schism and sectoral disagreement. Orthodox teachings of the Buddha, focused on ritualized meditation as the means of enlightenment, would spread to southeast Asia as one of oldest schools of Buddhism known as Theravāda.
As Buddhism continued to spread throughout Asia, it would encounter different cultures as it blended with local customs and beliefs. Ruling families in places like China, Korea, and Japan would initiate an integration of local practices (Confucianism, Shamanism, and Shinto respectively) with the newly arrived Buddhism. This integration would place civic-minded, moral philosophy that was aimed toward harmonious existence, against individualized spiritual attainment. This mixing and mingling of Buddhism with local paradigms would set an important precedent for the further development of Buddhism over the following two and a half millennia. All sects of Buddhism recognize the Four Noble Truths, which state the following:
Jōdo Shinshū Altar - Statue of Amida Tathagata (Buddha)
1. Dukkha, or that suffering is inherent to our transient existence.
2. Samudaya, or suffering catalyzes attachment to our unsatisfactory existence.
3. Nirodha, or the cessation of suffering is possible by letting go of this attachment.
4. Marga, or the road to confining attachment, and the release of Dukkha, is the Noble Eightfold Path.
This path outlines right action, thought, and belief toward the liberation from Samsara (the cycle of rebirth) through Samadhi (meditative awareness and union) (Suzuki).
While Theravāda Buddhism seeks to “attain” or “realize” enlightenment by placing the responsibility of reaching nirvana on the individual, the form of Buddhism that emerged in Japan, known as Jōdo Shinshū or True Pure Land Buddhism, emphasizes reception and awareness as the vehicle of enlightenment. Shin Buddhism places the path to enlightenment squarely within the quotidian. One’s engagement with Dharma (the nature of reality, the work of living beings) is defined by gratitude, not active derivation. Listening and reception of the oneness with Amida Buddha remains the highest good. The Buddha Dharma of Jōdo Shinshū implies that our preferences and prejudices, influenced by our individual Samudaya is resolved by the cultivation of a mind that “sees things as they are” (Bloom, 35).
Founded in the first part of 13th century by the monk Shinran Shonin, Shin Buddhism prioritizes gratitude and humility in the presence of ‘clear sight.’ Following years of frustration in search of enlightenment, Shinran realized that Dharma can be conveyed by anyone or anything at anytime, and that it is our responsibility to receive and listen without judgement.
As the Dharma permeates our mind, it illuminates the darkest corners of our ego to lead us along our Marga. The primary teaching of Jōdo Shinshū emphasizes the attainment of the ‘entrusting heart.’ In order to awaken to the compassion of Amida Tathagata (Buddha), Shin practitioners are asked to walk the path of life reciting Amida’s name, the Nembutsu. It is believe that at the end of life, all will be reborn in the Pure Land, and thus attain Buddha-hood (New York Buddhist Church). Gratitude and the reciting of the Nembutsu are synonymous, and remain central to the day-to-day dharmic work of Shin practitioners.
PART 2 - AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK BUDDHIST CHURCH
In the 19th century, Japanese immigrants settled along the California coast, where they faced significant segregationist attitudes. In his The Politics of Prejudice: The Anti-Japanese Movement in California and the Struggle for Japanese Exclusion, Roger Daniels writes:
“California, by virtue of its anti-Chinese tradition and frontier psychology, was already
conditioned to ‘anti-orientalism ‘before the Japanese arrived. Other special California
characteristics abetted the success of the agitation. In the prewar years, the extraordinary
power of organized labor in northern California gave the anti-Japanese movement a much
stronger base than it would have enjoyed elsewhere. (Daniels, pg. 107)
These anti-Japanese attitudes would directly influence the way Jōdo Shinshū was practiced in the United States. Practitioners replaced temples with ‘churches,’ sensei and gurus would be replaced with reverends and priests. Reverend Hozen Seki, the founder of the NYBC, intentionally brought together Eastern and Western influences in an attempt to make their faith seem less foreign in the face of increasing public skepticism. As WWII loomed, Reverend Seki moved to New York in 1938 to establish his new church at 171 West 94th Street. Two years after his arrival, Rev. Seki was arrested by the FBI, and moved to the Kooskia Internment Camp in Idaho, as all Japanese religious leaders came under increased scrutiny (Fitzpatrick). His wife Satomi ran the church in his absence, providing a space of refuge for relocated Buddhists and other victims of anti-Japanese sentiment during the war.
Following Rev. Seki’s release in 1946, the church began to grow. The NYBC began its relocation effort as the “West Side Urban Renewal” initiative claimed row-houses between Central Park West and Amsterdam Avenue from West 87th to West 97th Street. The congregation decided to purchase the four-story Beaux-Arts mansion located at 331 Riverside Dr. (Fitzpatrick). Built by the firm Janes & Leo in 1902, the rowhouse was previously owned by media mogul William Randolph Hearst, where his mistress silent film star Marion Davies lived. In 1955, the Church established a school at 331, where courses on Japanese language, literature, art, and music were offered to the public. Eventually the NYBC purchased the adjoining lot, 332 Riverside Drive, then home to a garage and garden. In 1955, the firm of Kelly & Gruzen began construction on the two-story glass and metal chapel that stands to this day (Rye).
In front of this modest chapel, contrasted by the neighboring Beaux-Arts complex, stands a 15-foot tall, scorched and slightly radioactive statue of Shinran Shonin. The statue originally stood in Hiroshima, one mile from where an American nuclear device was detonated.
The statue was one six similar across Japan; three of these six statues were melted down to manufacture ammunition for the war effort. The statues were built by devout Shin Buddhist Seiichi Hirose, an industrialist that wanted to donate the statue to the NYBC after the war as a gesture of peace. Hirose and Rev. Seki believed the statue’s proximity to Columbia University and the Manhattan Project would caution against a “future Hiroshima.” The dedication ceremony for the statue was held in 1955, where Buddhist philosopher and prolific writer D.T. Suzuki remarked:
“The present state of things as we are facing everywhere politically, economically,
morally, intellectually, and spiritually is no doubt the result of our past thoughts and
deeds … we are, every one of us, responsible for the present world-situation filled with
awesome forebodings.” (Suzuki)
Shinran’s presence on Riverside Dr. serves as a crucial dharmic reminder for the churches constituents, as well as those passing through the neighborhood: our past is our present.
PART 3 - 331 & 332 RIVERSIDE DRIVE: A SPACE OF PRACTICE & COMMUNITY
The current church is separated into two buildings: the four-story Beaux-Arts complex at 331, and the modest glass and steel chapel at 332. The two properties are connected by a passageway that allows free movement between the two. The building at 331 is now home to administrative offices, a few residencies for distinguished guests of the church, and classrooms.
The chapel at 332 is two stories: the upper floor serves as the main worship space, and the ground story exists as predominately storage. While the Beaux-Arts complex boasts a Western facade and luxurious interior finishes done by William Hearst, the chapel next door more subtly weaves Eastern and Western architectural qualities.
Before the advent of Jōdo Shinshū, Buddhist temples in Japan brought together local vernacular architecture with Shinto iconography. Completed in 645, Tokyo’s oldest established Buddhist temple, Asakusa Kannon, ornately demonstrates traditional Japanese joinery and timber work.
The most famous Shin Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Tsukiji Hongan-ji, completed in 1934, was designed to emulate ancient temples in India. This temple is unabashed, signaling the grandeur and divinity of the Buddha with its ornate carvings and billowing onion Dome. The chapel at 332 remains distinctly modern, a simple glass facade that conceals the activities performed within. Without the presence of Shinran standing guard outside, the nature of the building would be unclear at first glance. These two temples were built within 20 years of each other, but demonstrably indicate the goals of each group: unabashed devotion vs. humility.
Beyond the chapels minimalist and utilitarian character, the interior design of the space reflects further efforts to christianize the congregation. The direct influence of Christian theology is immediately clear with the placement of the altar. The Shin Buddhist altar is an object of reverence directed toward the Amida Buddha, who occupies the central position. Altars in temples around the world are typically adorned with candles, flowers, incense, rice, and water, all representing different aspects of the impermanence of life and the compassion of the Buddha (Kodani). In Buddhist temples found in Asia, the altar is placed at the same level as the practitioners and the religious leaders, in order to indicate oneness. Typically found at the center of a square hall, offset from the central axis to indicate equality, the altar found in Asian temples is reminder of equanimity and equality (Rye).
The NYBC however, confined by the long, narrow plots of the Upper West Side, mirrors a Christian church hall where the alter (or crucifix) rests at the far end of the space, slightly elevated above the congregation in order to symbolize the hierarchies typical in christian theology (Rye). In his work Shin Buddhism in America: A Social Perspective, Alfred Bloom highlights the subtle hybridity of Japanese American culture and spiritual identity, particularly as it emerged alongside the immigrant identity. He writes:
In addition to ethical values, there are other cultural attitudes that have been transferred
from Japan. These are shikata-ga-nai which means to accept those things over which one
has no control; mottainai which generally suggests modesty, conveying a sense of
unworthiness; gaman which means to endure and persevere in the face of difficulty;
enryō which is a nonassertive restraint or reserve; and finally okage-sama-de and
arigatai, which express gratitude and appreciation to all those factors supporting our
lives, though unseen. (Bloom, pg. 38)
The differences in architectural style between the NYBC and traditional Japanese temples are not merely an accidental consequence of zoning. They are rather the result of an intentional effort to retain deeply held cultural beliefs informed by their Shin practice, all the while Americanizing their appeal to non-Japanese practitioners in the wake of WWII. Reverend Kurt Rye, who leads weekly prayer and Dharma Talk, emphasized the ever-evolving nature of Buddhism globally, but particularly in the United States where the integration of spiritual teachings and cultural identity remains critical to Japanese American identity.
The structure and content of services held at the NYBC integrate traditional practices with a certain Christian flair. The NYBC offers Sunday morning services, live-streamed on Youtube for their global congregation. The interior of the chapel is brightly colored, with red carpet and ornate gold filigree around the altar. The ringing of the Kansho bell initiates the service, followed by a period of quiet and seated meditation. Sutra chants in Pali and Japanese are conducted, with English translations provided. Hymns are sung in both English and Japanese, another Christian theological carryover, as traditional Buddhist practice prioritizes chanting. Following the Dharma Talk and reciting of the Nembutsu, the congregation gathers in the Beaux-Arts wing for questions and the sharing of insight and company over refreshments.
The presence of the New York Buddhist Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is a testament to the perseverance and strength of Japanese Americans before, during, and after WWII. Jōdo Shinshū undergirds its belief structure with gratitude and awareness, traits that would directly influence the way the Issei and Nisei understood themselves within the larger American fabric. As these new arrivals faced discrimination, Japanese Americans were forced to adjust and assimilate their spiritual practices in order to pacify their new neighbors and appear less exotic. These adjustments however did not change their fundamental beliefs, particularly their appreciation of the life, the compassion, and the wisdom of the Amida Buddha. The statue of Shinran is a physical manifestation of this gratitude; not only for a new home, but for the salvation found along the road towards the True Pure Land, the path of oneness with Buddha found in every nook and cranny of existence.
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