Techno Hoyo: A Dynamic, Immersive Experience

Groundbreaking US Tour Delivers the Dharma With Music, Dance, Light Show

FYI

To see the Techno Hoyo U.S. tour, go to: https://www.youtube.com/@TechnoHoyo

To see videos from Rev. Gyosen Asakura and Madoka Kohno, go to https://www.youtube.com/@gyosen02/videos and https://www.youtube.com/@CyberNamunamu

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Images of Amida Buddha, trees and colorful hand-drawn flowers flashed on the Onaijin to a pulsing electronic music beat as members of the Sangha, even full-robed ministers, danced in the Hondo.

Cutting through the synthesized tones and the thump of the bass, you could hear sutra chanting.

It was a dance party, light show and techno music concert blended into a kind of cutting edge Shin Buddhist service that hadn’t been seen in the United States.

Rev. Kyosen Asakura from Fukui City, Japan, created Techno Hoyo, techno for the type of music and hoyo for a Buddhist service, to bring more young people to his 550-year-old temple at a time when membership is falling not just at Shoonji, but throughout Jodo Shinshu.

The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) brought the groundbreaking service to the United States from Sept. 8-18 as part of its 125th anniversary with the same hope in mind. 

There were nine Techno Hoyo services: four at the New York Buddhist Church; one at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple; one at the University of Southern California; and three at the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin. The services drew hundreds of people in person, including many visiting a Shin Buddhist temple for the first time and, so far, more than 1,000 views online.

Members of the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin who participated in the Techno Hoyo called it a “true joy” and “very unifying, very uniting.”

BCA Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada initially had a one-word reaction after participating in a Techno Hoyo at the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin — “Wow!”

Rev. Harada added: “I love to see ministers do something innovative and creative, but this goes way beyond that.”

“I enjoyed this so much! I wish I was there to dance with all of you,” one viewer commented on a Techno Hoyo US Tour video.

Techno Hoyo originated about eight years ago when Rev. Asakura sought to reverse his temple’s declining membership and absence of young people. A former DJ in his younger years, Asakura decided to try combining techno music with a Shin Buddhist service.

Rev Asakura said he aimed Techno Hoyo for people in his area.

“I couldn’t have imagined that it would become so large that I could have the privilege of performing in America and doing this service for you,” Rev. Asakura said at the San Jose Betsuin.

Rev. Asakura has conducted Techno Hoyo at his temple about twice a year and posts videos to YouTube. One of “Amidakyo” posted seven years ago has been viewed 362,000 times. The BBC and NBC have also done stories about the services.

The Techno Hoyo has drawn more young people to Shoonji and to the services in the United States. Six years ago, a then 30-something-year-old Japanese man with ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome came across one of Rev. Asakura’s videos on YouTube while in a bout of depression

Madoka Kohno said he became obsessed with the video. “I’d watch it 180 times a day,” he said. It was therapeutic for him.

Kohno said he wanted to thank Rev. Asakura, but wanted to do more than that. He started Cyber Namunamu, a group that also combines traditional Buddhist art with digital technologies, producing videos that combine modern beats and colorful images with traditional Buddhist sutras and songs. He not only met Rev. Asakura, but started to collaborate on Techno Hoyo in Japan and joined him on the U.S. tour.

Kohno presented multimedia versions of three sutras during the tour. The other members of Cyber Namunamu are Rev. Shinji Fukinbara, Hourin (also a Jodo Shinshu minister), composer Ryoji Sato and DJ/producer Yuki Kawamura. A Cyber Namunamu version of “Amidakyo” has been viewed more than 232,000 times.

Members of the Sangha, including ministers, popped out of their seats to dance to the Cyber Namunamu’s “Amidakyo” and other people turned on the flashlights on their phones and waved them in rhythm to the music.

The roots of the Techno Hoyo U.S. tour were planted during a Minister’s Assistant training session at the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley, California, about seven years ago. Rev. Chiemi Onikura Bly of the Twin Cities Buddhist Association said Rev. John Mullins, now the Minister’s Assistant for the Las Vegas Sangha, showed her one of Rev. Asakura’s videos and asked about contacting Rev. Asakura.

Rev. Bly, who also has an interest in music, began thinking about bringing Rev. Asakura and Techno Hoyo to the United States and contacted him through social media. As the talk grew more serious, she sought professional advice and support from David Brady, President of the Buddhist Church of New York, who has more than three decades of experience in the broadcasting industry.

The pandemic put any plans for a tour on hold for several years. But the plans solidified during the 17th World Buddhist Women’s Conference last year in Kyoto, where Rev. Bly and Brady met with Rev. Asakura.

The tour team consisted of five people: Rev. Asakura; Rev. Bly, the tour director; Kohno; Brady; and Max Bly, Rev. Bly’s 20-year-old son who translated for Rev. Asakura and Kohno. They were assisted by temple members and other volunteers at each site.

There were challenges such as adapting the lights and music to four different venues, and to block out sunlight. In San Jose, black paper blinds bought on Amazon covered the windows. See-through cloth was hung in the front of the Onaijin so the images could be better seen, a projector was set up just inside the front door and audio speakers were brought inside the Hondo.

The Techno Hoyo generally followed the same format of a typical service:  Kansho, Sambujo, Ti-Sarana, sutra chanting and a Dharma talk. The flower images displayed on the Onajin were drawn by students from San Jose Betsuin’s Lotus Preschool and the Mountain View Buddhist Temple Dharma School.

Cyber Namunamu was featured in a separate part of the program, which ended with the English language gatha, “Namu Amida Butsu,” but with a Techno Hoyo twist. The voice of the female lead singer wasn’t real. It was a voice generated by artificial intelligence, according to Kohno.

Techno Hoyo U.S. tour attracted people who had little or no contact with a Jodo Shinshu temple. Rev. Harada said he met one attendee who came after hearing about Techno Hoyo at his yoga class.

“I thought it would be good for young people,” Rev. Bly said. “But it’s much more than I expected, so much more.”

Brady said a majority of the 60 to 70 people who attended the New York services were “first timers, which was really surprising and really heartwarming.

“The best part for me was seeing people smile as they were leaving,” Brady said.

About 120 people attended the Techno Hoyo at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, which was organized by Resident Minister Rev. Hibiki Murakami. 

“The crowd was truly diverse with attendees from all over the city and beyond, young and young-at-heart,” said John DiGilio, a Minister’s Assistant at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. “It was a wonderful and energizing experience for all attendees and a real reminder that the teachings are as timeless as they are time-honored!”

Digilio said “sounds, visuals, and lighting effects gave a new dimension to familiar chants and melodies.”

The three Techno Hoyo services at the San Jose Betsuin attracted about 300 people.

“The Techno Hoyo service really added another dimension to chanting,” said San Jose Betsuin board member Gloria Yamauchi. “The visual effects and synthesized sounds really infused the Hondo with an exciting energy. Highly recommend attending a Techno Hoyo service!”

Brent Izutsu, a Mountain View Buddhist Temple member, called Techno Hoyo a “fantastic reimagining of the traditional service .… It was inspirational and encouraging to see that the presentation of Jodo Shinshu is continuing to evolve as we share and connect the Nembutsu with current and future generations. It makes me excited to see what we can do in our own temples with our own Sanghas to bring Buddhism to life in ways as yet unexplored.”

Rev. Bly said Rev. Asakura and Kohno are offering to share the music and even a light show with temples so they can use part or all of the Techno Hoyo in their own services.

“That’s the next step,” she said.

Rev. Asakura acknowledges some people don’t like Techno Hoyo for breaking tradition and the usual atmosphere of a service. They’re not wrong, he said. Just as some collectors see a classic Apple computer as a treasure, others see it as useless because it can’t even display a YouTube video.

In Rennyo’s time, artists, sculptors and builders constructed the Onaijin so that the Sangha could “imagine the Pure Land,” he said.  

Techno Hoyo is attempting to do the same with modern technology to also “inspire your imagination,” Rev. Asakura said.