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TI: And it was during kind of this time that you met your second wife, and we talked a little bit earlier, Marrie.

KY: Oh, after I went to Berkeley, that was '84 I went to Berkeley, and a year and a few months later, I got married. "I recognize her." [Laughs]

TI: 'Cause you remembered her from the school back in...

KY: Yeah. She was coming to our IBA, International Buddhist Association services.

TI: I see.

KY: So it was a renewal, meeting of former friends.

TI: And this research center was, focus was the translation of the Buddhist canon.

KY: Canon.

TI: And how far did you get before... or how far are they now? How much more work needs to happen?

KY: The (Taisho) Buddhist canon is 2,000, close to 3,000 texts, sutras and commentaries and so on. And that's in, mostly in the Chinese language. And to translate it all would take many, many decades, many decades. But there's what's called a group of text called the First Series. And this First Series has only 139 out of close to three thousand texts. So there's a tremendous amount of things that's got to be translated. But the first 139 texts were selected by a group of Japanese Buddhist scholars, professors and so on. And this group, at the urging and sponsorship of the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, which is a group formed by Mr. Numata for propagating Buddhism in Japan. Under their sponsorship, they're the ones that selected 139 texts out of the close to (3,000). And, again, this group formed what they called the Editorial Committee for the Tripitaka Translation Project. And they then contracted with roughly a hundred international -- international meaning from different countries -- Buddhist scholars. And they translated it into English, and their work then comes to us and we have it reviewed by all the scholars, then finalized into English, published in English, and then we're in the process of selling it.

TI: Well, so I'm looking at... so Reverend Numata originally sort of financed this to make it happen. But based on his birthday, he must have passed away years ago. And I'm wondering, how is this work now supported?

KY: His work is still supported by the same organization, Mitsutoyo, (maker of) MTI products.

TI: Oh, so he gave instructions for the company still to support...

KY: Right, right. So the sponsorship funding comes from Mitsutoyo, and that's called BDK, meaning, Buddhist Promotion Society in Japan, and they have, they're called BDK America. And that's what sponsors directly in dollars this project.

TI: Okay, good, so I was curious.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.