Posted on: Friday, June 14, 2002

Kurtistown's Jodo Mission to mark 100th anniversary

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

KURTISTOWN, Hawai'i — The Rev. Wajira Wansa of Kurtistown's Jodo Mission hopes tomorrow's 100th anniversary will infuse new energy into the Buddhist temple that once had 1,000 members but now has a declining and decidedly graying membership.

The Kurtistown mission is down to about 65 members from its high point 80 years ago.

Like many of the Big Island's Buddhist missions that thrived in the plantation days, the Kurtistown temple is trying to find a niche within a generation that has increasingly dropped out or adopted other religious ties.

Laupahoehoe Jodo Mission closed two years ago. Another unit of the Jodo sect, based on the teachings of Saint Honen, is led by a minister in Hakalau, but its membership is dwindling.

The trend is a familiar one, said Albert Nishimura, a lay leader in the Hilo Hongwanji Mission, more recently known as Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin.

Nishimura, 74, said he has a grandson who attends a Baptist church with his girlfriend.

"That's OK with me. Any church is better than no church at all," said the retired banking executive.

Nishimura was among senior leaders who recently completed the $3 million building project for the mission's Sangha Hall, a site for community activities ranging from political and social events to weddings and commercial sports productions.

In Kurtistown, a Puna community between Kea'au and Mountain View, Wansa said: "We hope they (the children and grandchildren of the earlier members) will come back once they realize what the value is."

The Kurtistown mission, which sits on a hilltop off the highway, began as 'Ola'a Jodo Mission Hall, choosing the regional name also used by the plantation later known as Puna Sugar Co. before the mill in Kea'au shut down.

For its first 80 years, Kurtistown was served by seven priests born and trained in Japan.

In 1982, the Sri Lankan-born Wansa took over. Aside from his ministerial duties, Wansa grows flowers in Puna to help support his family.

The centennial party has been a year in planning. There is a new stone monument to Saint Honen near the mission's entrance.

One of this weekend's celebrants will be Tsuruko "Betty" Abe, now nearing 94.

She vividly recalls her graduation at age 14 from the new Japanese language school that was shut down during World War II and never regained its former prominence.

For Abe, a Volcano resident, the temple is one of her life's foundations. Of others who used to be members, she said: "A lot of the young ones became Christians or joined other churches."

Fourteen Buddhist ministers from Japan and nine from Honolulu will join the religious gathering, which starts at 2:30 p.m.

Secular activities will start at 5 p.m.