A Dharma Connection Across 125 Years
From the high school in Japan to Obon at San Mateo Buddhist Temple
Rev. Chiemi Onikura Bly
On August 8, San Mateo Buddhist Temple held our annual Obon Odori. This year’s Obon
was especially meaningful to me because we welcomed students from Chikushi Jogakuen
High School in Fukuoka, Japan—my own alma mater. Their visit brought together a
remarkable Dharma connection that began more than 125 years ago.
Rev. Tetsuei Mizuki, a Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha minister from Fukuoka, was the founder
of Chikushi Jogakuen. In December 1900, Rev. Mizuki came to San Francisco to lead
Hongwanji’s Buddhist mission in North America. According to Chikushi Jogakuen’s history,
while working among Japanese immigrants, he became deeply aware of the differences in
education and social status between women in Japan and the United States. In particular,
witnessing the difficult circumstances faced by Japanese women in America convinced him
of the importance of women’s education.
After returning to Japan, Rev. Mizuki established Chikushi Jogakuen in Fukuoka in 1907, a
girls’ school founded on the teachings of Jodo Shinshu. Only three years later, in 1910, San
Mateo Buddhist Temple was established as a branch of the San Francisco Buddhist Church.
Today, 116 years later, our temple continues to be a place where the Nembutsu teaching is
heard and shared.
More than a century after Rev. Mizuki’s journey, I became a student at the school he founded. Through another unexpected connection, I eventually came to the United States, became a Jodo Shinshu minister, and now have the opportunity to share the Buddha-Dharma with the Sangha at San Mateo Buddhist Temple.
Then came August 8, 2026.
That morning, I visited the Japanese Cemetery in Colma for our Obon cemetery service. There, I noticed Rev. Mizuki’s name inscribed on a BCA stone monument. I was deeply moved. In my heart, I spoke to him: “Mizuki Sensei, the students from the school you founded are here. They have come all the way from Fukuoka, and tonight they will join the Obon Odori at San Mateo Buddhist Temple.”
That evening, I watched the students from Chikushi Jogakuen join the circle and dance together with our San Mateo community.
Rev. Mizuki had crossed the Pacific from Fukuoka to San Francisco in 1900. What he experienced here helped inspire him to establish a school for women after returning to Japan. More than a century later, students from that school crossed the same Pacific in the other direction and joined us at Obon. And there I was, one of his school’s former students, now serving as a Jodo Shinshu minister in the Bay Area.
When I think about the history of Japan, the history of Japanese Americans, and the history of our Buddhist temples in America, I am reminded that none of us arrived at this moment by ourselves. Countless people before us built temples, established communities, educated young people, preserved the teachings, and created connections without knowing where those connections might lead generations later.
In Buddhism, we call such connections go-En—the causes and conditions that bring our lives together. When those connections lead us to encounter the Buddha-Dharma, we can speak of Butsu-En—our Dharma connection with the Buddha and the teachings.
Standing there that day, I felt profound gratitude for all those who came before us. I also felt a renewed responsibility as a minister: to receive the Dharma that has been protected and passed down to us, and to help pass it on to those who come after us.
The connections that brought us together did not begin with us, and they should not end with us.
I wanted to share this experience with our San Mateo Sangha because you, too, are part of this continuing Dharma connection. May we treasure the connections we have received, encounter the Nembutsu teaching through them, and together pass the Buddha-Dharma on to the generations yet to come.
Gassho