<Begin Segment 8>

TI: You mentioned earlier that you had also, the idea for bazaars came from church, churches. Did you attend one of the local churches?

MH: Oh, yeah. We were, my parents, my mother was very much into the Congregational religion, and there was this church right here on Twelfth, broken-down old building there on Twelfth and... I think it's Main. Up the hill there, a little bit behind it, yeah, it was Twelfth. Twelfth there was a garage here, and it went up just a little bit towards the Main. And it was a broken-down old house, building, but they had a, put in a potbelly stove in the middle, and then we had a couple from, a Caucasian couple, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy as our minister, and then the Japanese got -- I mean, we got several Japanese-speaking ministers. I remember Reverend Abe.

TI: But the congregation was primarily Japanese?

MH: Oh, it's a Japanese congregation.

TI: Japanese congregation. And how, why did your mother get involved with this church?

MH: I don't think she was Christian when she came over, but I guess she thought that was the American thing to do, to become a Christian. And then when she heard of this, people organizing to do a Japanese... I'm not real sure, but I think that's probably the way it happened.

TI: And how about your father? Did he also go to this church?

MH: No, he, my father was not a church-goer. He went because my mother urged him. For a while he was interested in the seicho no ie. Do you know what that was?

TI: No, I don't know.

MH: That's another... what would you call it? It's not a typical church. Seicho no ie is... what would you say? Maybe it's -- you know, I'm a Unitarian -- maybe it's like the Unitarians. They're not, they're not Christians and they're not Buddhists, but they have a very high sense of personal responsibility and compassion and caring, and no dogma, and I think seicho no ie was something like that. They're very nice people.

TI: And they would get together and meet and talk?

MH: Yeah, but Dad didn't go to many meetings. As I say, he doesn't like meetings. But I think that seicho no ie is still prevalent, if you look into it. They have it here in Seattle, I think.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.