I offer my heartfelt sympathies to all those affected by the devastating wildfires that have taken lives, destroyed homes, and shattered communities in the Los Angeles area at the start of this year. As I reflect upon this heartbreaking disaster and consider how a person of the Nembutsu might respond, I find guidance in the life of Lady Takeko Kujo, who realized birth in the Pure Land 97 years ago this month on Feb. 7, 1928. Lady Kujo’s life was cut short due to an illness contracted while working to improve the lives of the poor in the Tokyo slums following the great Kanto Earthquake and subsequent fires that ravaged the city in 1923.
Lady Kujo was the daughter of the 21st Gomonshu Myonyo Shonin, the first Hongwanji abbot to dispatch ministers to the BCA. She married Baron Kujo Yoshimasa, a member of the aristocratic class who was educated at Cambridge University and worked in London for a Yokohama bank. As a member of elite society, she would have been sheltered from the poverty and difficulty of the common people in her usual daily routine.
As Japan rapidly industrialized in the early decades of the 20th century, people moved to the cities from the countryside seeking higher wages. However, they often found themselves working long hours under harsh conditions and only able to afford housing in the crowded and unsanitary Tokyo slums of that time.
On September 1, 1923 at 11:58 a.m. a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Tokyo where Lady Kujo was living at the Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple. When her husband came home from work around 3:30 p.m., he found a crowd of evacuees who had gathered in the open courtyard in front of the Main Temple Hall. As the earthquake had struck at lunchtime, flames from cooking quickly spread throughout homes and neighborhoods. As the evening winds began to blow in off the Tokyo Bay, the fires engulfed large sections of the city.
In a letter describing her experience, Lady Kujo writes that she hastily packed an overnight bag and gathered up the small valuables that were close at hand before fleeing from the temple as the fires approached. She describes hurrying along the edge of Tokyo Bay with her companions, with the sound of explosions erupting behind her from the places she had just been. Eventually, she wound up finding shelter at a temple located about four miles away in the Aoyama district.
Nearly 150,000 people are said to have perished in the earthquake and fires. Living through experiences like this gave Lady Kujo the sense that no matter what wealth or status a person has, uncontrollable forces like earthquakes and wildfires do not discriminate between the rich and the poor. Even though she lived a life a privilege, Lady Kujo recognized her shared humanity with the poor who lived in the slums.
In the aftermath of the quake, Takeko Kujo worked tirelessly to help those most vulnerable in the Tokyo slums. Following the quake, she founded the Asoka hospital to provide modern medical care for the people. She wrote the book Muyuge in 1927 directing that all royalties be given to the hospital. In Muyuge, we find the following poem, which provides the lyrics for the beloved gatha Seiya (“Sacred Night”):
The starry heavens are magnificent—
Ah, who can fathom their mystery!
When those countless eyes glisten so brightly,
How they delight my aching heart!
More abundant than the sands of the Ganges
Are the Buddhas that fill the universe.
Night and day, they constantly protect us.
Hearing this soothes my aching heart.
(Leaves of My Heart, p. 59)