Midwest Buddhist Temple Celebrates 80th Anniversary

Editor’s note: This article by Joy Fujishima Zavala first appeared in the Midwest Buddhist Temple’s Bulletin monthly newsletter in December. The Wheel of Dharma is reprinting it with her permission.

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In early 2024, the Midwest Buddhist Temple (MBT) Events Committee was given the task of planning for the 125th BCA and 80th MBT anniversaries. 

The scheduled main event was the celebration that was held on Sunday, Nov. 10. The menu and program were the culmination of ideas discussed during our meetings (many on Zoom). Our theme was "Gratitude for MBT Sangha — Past and Present."

We were very fortunate to have our Dharma School students participate in the celebration. They helped with decorating the tables with vases filled with flowers, napkins with ohashi (chopsticks), candles with battery lights and photographs from long ago to present. They also assisted with adding the engraved ohashi to origami covers and, on the day of the celebration, handed them out to all attendees. We hope these small gifts will bring back wonderful memories of our celebration in the years to come.

Three of the older Dharma School students gave a speech about the amazing history of the Midwest Buddhist Temple. The Dharma School parents jumped in where needed, providing breaks for many who had been working.

Our extensive menu included a wide range from comfort food — okazu (meat and vegetarian versions) — to other typical Japanese fare, including onigiri, inari sushi, tofu, somen salad, tsukemono and rice, and raw veggies and dip. Sushi from Kamehachi was a special treat, and desserts were donated by many of the attendees.

We are so fortunate to have Allison Hagio as our very talented artist who created MBT’s 80th anniversary logo. She said the inspiration for the "80" came from the screens on each side of the Onaijin in the Hondo. T-shirts and tote bags with the beautiful logo are still available for sale.

Posing under a banner with our 80th anniversary logo, attendees had their photos taken before lining up for food.  

Inspiring speeches were given by Jennifer Toguri and Dharma School students and MBT's Board of Trustees President Jason Matsumoto. Rev. Todd Tsuchiya had people raise their hands if they were involved in the many events, groups and programs at MBT, showing how we have all participated and contributed in some way throughout the years.

And, as everyone enjoyed their meal and socialized, a slide show played on a loop. Another shorter slide show was shown near the end of our program as everyone enjoyed their desserts. 

A message from Rev. Gyosho Kono — the nephew of MBT's founding minister, Rev. Gyodo Kono, and a minister at Sairinji Temple — was especially touching. As he spoke in Japanese, the translation in English appeared as subtitles. Thanks to Carl and Harumi Ichikawa for obtaining and providing the video and translation.

Over the last 80 years, we have had many ministers — 14 — who have served our temple. We put the Sangha to the test with a game displaying photos of the ministers and having everyone try to match the pictures with their names. There was one clear winner, Carol Baba, who named all 14 ministers and even corrected a name (Rev. Masaaki was missing his last name — Yamamoto — which she filled in). Since Carol is the daughter of the late Amy Katahira, a Nisei and MBT pianist for many years, it was fitting that she probably knew many of them.  

Also, four of our Dharma School students guessed them all correctly — although they may have had a peek at the photos on the wall by the north entrance. All five won gift cards, and we thank everyone who participated.

Another game had us guessing four gathas with one of our pianists, Christina Szabo, playing a few notes and slowly adding more. The list of gathas was on the screen and people yelled out the name of the song (like contestants do on the TV shows "Name That Tune" or "Beat Shazam"). If correct, everyone sang it with the words appearing on the screen. It was fun to sing the songs most of us already knew from our Sunday School days.

We are grateful to everyone who helped to make the celebration a success. As Jason Matsumoto pointed out in his speech, there was an entire page full of names of those who helped in all aspects of our special event. Planning, arranging flowers, food, helping in the kitchen, sharing speeches, emceeing, making slide shows, program help, donating desserts, gift organization and distribution, and arranging historical photos were all important aspects of the celebration. 

There are too many people to thank individually but we appreciated Grady Hutt’s strong and commanding voice, making him a great choice as our emcee. We also thank Taryn Hutt’s behind-the-scenes compilation of the slide shows with photos our members sent to her along with music accompaniment. This was tedious work with so many photos, but it was nice to see such a wide range — from the early days with the Issei to the present with our newest members.

We also thank everyone for attending this significant event. It was so nice to see members and friends of all ages, and it may have been a coincidence that there were around 125 attendees (to go along with the BCA's 125th anniversary). The celebration was reminiscent of events from long ago with so many Issei, Nisei and Sansei attending. And we hope there will be many more years of fun events with many participants.

Our elderly members, including the Nisei, have become fewer in numbers, and we appreciate all of their years of hard work, dedication and participation. They have set an example for us to continue on with their energy and enthusiasm.