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TI: Earlier you mentioned how you lived close to the Buddhist Temple in Auburn. And your father used to talk about the importance of Buddhism. Can you, how was your family associated with the Buddhist temple in Auburn? How close were they to that?

KY: That is a very important thing in my entire life. In fact, it could have been the basis for my knowledge and experience and desire for doing this language type work, and in particular, religion, Buddhism. I think that's been kind of a line, general line that throughout my, stretched throughout my life. Main thing was that the influence came from the fact that this local church was called the Auburn Buddhist Church, and we were a branch of the White River Buddhist Church, which was our main temple, and which had the resident minister. So ours was a branch and we did not have a minister, and that was in Auburn. And Auburn was, I would say, three, four miles away from the White River Buddhist Temple. So in one sense, you could think in terms of, say, the White River being the Betsuin and the other temple is kind of a branch type thing. But our branch, Auburn Buddhist Temple did not have a resident priest. So the White River minister used to come to our church on Saturdays and hold services, and the regular Sunday services would be held at White River. But, quote, kind of a "pseudo Betsuin" kind, we were the branch.

We didn't have a minister, so what happened was that we had this old -- well, actually, I think it was a new building, I'm sure it was built by donations from the members, back in the, I would say close to 1920. Two story structure, wooden, and there was two facilities. The bottom floor, the main floor, was the Japanese language school, Auburn Japanese language school. And right next to it, kind of like an attached apartment was the house for the teacher, Japanese language school teacher. So he would go from his living, which is right, which is attached right to the main school, he just went to the school. And so that was that. And then on the second floor was the Auburn Buddhist Temple, the branch temple. And from the ground level to the second main temple area, which I guess would hold about maybe a hundred people, there was a long stairway, staircase to the ground level. And I would imagine that would be about fifteen feet up. And there was a landing area. In other words, it didn't lead right to the front door of the temple, but there was kind of a landing area, maybe about twenty-by-twenty-something, something like that. And there was some... not fences, but there were railings around that area, kind of landing area, long stairway and then landing area. And then the entrance of the temple.

And right below the stairway which led to the landing area, there was this, what I call the woodshed. In those days, we didn't have central heating or anything, we used to have woodstoves. So what was in there was firewood. And the chopped wood would be in there, and I used to help, remember help getting the firewood from under this long stairway here, the other room here, and carrying it up the stairs and then take it to the, I think they called 'em Franklin stoves or something like that, kind of potbellied, huge thing in the middle of the church area. I remember doing that, carrying wood from about, carrying it to the Franklin stove. I remember that, doing that.

And then I also remember helping with the... since our temple did not have a priest, my father acted like a, kind of an assistant -- not even an assistant -- kind of a helper. I guess right now they call 'em assistant ministers, they help out with the, not with the service, per se, but at least for the housekeeping and maintenance and cleaning the altar area. The altar area has a lot of, I think bronze decorations and fixtures and so on, ornaments that needed polishing and that sort of thing, I remember doing that. And every temple has rice offering, offering of rice in a little raised cup. And my family was responsible for making that and bringing it to the temple every day. And I remember helping my father... well, my mother had to cook the rice, and she made sure that it was a specially made rice that was put into this special offering. And I remember taking what we call obuppan, it's rice (offering) for the Buddha, in a special box like, container, and carried that to the church. I remember doing that in a wooden box. So in many ways like that, I really had the experience of being around the temple. And a lot of people these days say, boy, they can't stand the smoke and the smell of the incense. They say, "Oh, it gets in my eyes, makes it hard to breathe," and they cough. To me, incense, "Oh, this is like home. I like this smell." So I was different in that sense, that smell of incense got into me, I think.

TI: Wow, thank you. I mean, that was a wonderful description. So your family was very involved.

KY: Very involved, very devout, and oh, we never missed a service, of course. The father was one of the main benefactors of the church.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.