<Begin Segment 40>

AI: Well, we're in our, kind of returning back to a sense of chronology here, just before our last break, you were talking a little bit about the religion and church-going --

MY: Oh, yeah.

AI: And you had just started to mention that when your parents came to the United States, they were not Christian at that point? Or, maybe you could tell a little bit about what kind of --

MY: Well, I think that my dad, they must have both been Buddhists. Wouldn't you assume?

TY: Yeah, I think they were, yeah.

MY: Because when we went to Mushirouchi and Tonari's widow took me to the temple, she said, "Ohaka ni ikimasho," you know, we went to the Ohaka, and it's a Buddhist temple, right? With all the little, where the family is buried.

JY: Yeah.

MY: Have you been there?

JY: Uh-huh.

MY: Did you go, did she take you there?

JY: They had a family columbarium there. Remember that --

TY: Well, remember when we went to Japan in '84?

JY: '84, yeah.

TY: We went to, it looked like a --

MY: To Ohaka?

TY: It was a small building --

JY: No, remember that, remember that Buddhist priest?

TY: -- and it had a bunch of, bunch of names along the wall with, and there was, I would say, I'd say about three-fourth of the names --

MY: Shrines.

TY: -- were "Yasutake" on there. Remember that?

JY: There were a lot of Yasutakes.

TY: And that wasn't a, it wasn't a temple, it was just a small --

JY: No, we went to two.

MY: That was a columbarium.

JY: Yeah. The one we went to that you're talking about was on the Yasutake side.

TY: Yeah.

JY: The other one, the temple where the priest was that we met, that used to be Mom's --

TY: That's the Shirakis?

MY: That was --

JY: -- that was where Mom used to live.

MY: Hakata. Hakata saimon.

JY: And that's the temple that Mom used to go to.

TY: Oh, I see. I remember the --

JY: Apparently, and the Shiraki columbarium was in that temple.

TY: Buddhist priest gave us tea.

JY: Yeah.

TY: He had tea with him. Oh, I remember, okay, yeah.

MY: So I, so we have to assume... so we have to assume that they were both Buddhists.

JY: Yeah, I think so.

TY: I think they were.

JY: They must have been.

TY: Yeah.

MY: And so Dad was converted to Christianity when he was going to school, when he was at San Francisco.

TY: And so he was, he was a Christian before he married Mother?

MY: Yeah. And so then Mother came to this country, and then she became a Christian.

TY: Uh-huh.

MY: And then, and then what she did in, was that, it was kind of a hybrid shrine -- she would put up a picture, and then she would put up -- as I said, with the long-stem vase on both sides, and you put flowers up there. She was always putting food...

TY: For senko?

MY: Like a senko. And then she would pray but her prayers were -- I remember when I asked her, she was saying... I forgot what it was I told -- I think that, "Isn't that a Shinto ritual? Is that a Buddhist ritual or something like that?" And she said, "Oh, that's okay, because, sore demo dore demo ii desho. Shuesu kirisuto no," da-da-da. That, "I am praying in the name of Jesus Christ." [Laughs] And so it didn't matter if it was, even if, when she was saying that some of her prayers were, kind of sounded like a Buddhist prayer, "Ame tera some kami," da-da-da, that was a Shinto, but everything was kind of mixed up, right? And so I was kind of teasing her, saying that, and she said, "That's okay, because I'm, I just pray in the name of Jesus Christ, anyways."

TY: Well she probably thought that kamisama would, kamisama would understand. [Laughs]

MY: Yeah, that's what she'd always say, yeah. "Kamisama knows what I mean." [Laughs] So, but as Joe was saying, they didn't really, they didn't force us to go to Sunday school, make us go to church.

TY: No, well, Mother went. I can't remember Dad going very often. Where was Dad? He went to poet-, he went to senryu club meeting every Sunday, I think.

MY: Yeah.

TY: But anyway, I think Mother went very religiously every Sunday, and we went. And my days of, those days, the early days of high school and my social events that occurred at the church, I think there were -- I remember good things about it. In fact, even today, many of the Seattle friends that I do have -- are still living -- are former Methodist Church members. Or they are still active church members. I don't, I'm not an active Methodist Church member now, but they're, we're still good friends and we see them occasionally, have dinner with them. Like Itois, and, but those are very, both May and I were in the choir, we actively participated at choir, members. And one of the more memorable days is when we sang the Messiah, at the church.

MY: Oh, yeah. That's right.

TY: And that was, I was still --

MY: High school.

TY: -- maybe a sophomore in high school, then. Yeah, it was really, really had a good time.

MY: Yeah, that was really -- and then choir rehearsals were a lot of fun. We used to -- I think that, and then we --

TY: May, May Hara was our choir --

MY: May Hara was, yeah.

<End Segment 40> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.