Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Buddhist Churches of America records
LSC.2364  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
  • Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
  • Preferred Citation
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Custodial History
  • Processing Information
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID
  • Administrative/Biographical History
  • Scope and Contents
  • Arrangement

  • Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Title: Buddhist Churches of America records
    Creator: Buddhist Churches of America
    Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2364
    Physical Description: 430 Linear Feet (287 record cartons, 123 document boxes, 61 flat boxes and panorama folders)
    Date (inclusive): 1832-2016
    Abstract: The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) is a national organization of the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji sect in the continental United States. Formerly known as the Buddhist Mission of North America (BMNA), the BCA is the largest Japanese American Buddhist organization and is currently headquartered in San Francisco, California. The collection includes correspondence between headquarters in the United States, Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji Headquarters in Kyoto, Japan, and individual temples, as well as meeting minutes and conference materials, education-related records, publications, financial records, and audiovisual materials in a wide variety of formats.
    Physical Location: Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
    Language of Material: Materials are in English and Japanese.

    Conditions Governing Access

    Portions of this collection are restricted due the presence of financially sensitive materials.

    Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

    CONTAINS UNPROCESSED AUDIOVISUAL AND DIGITAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual and digital materials are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.

    Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

    Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Buddhist Churches of America records (Collection 2364). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Gift of Buddhist Churches of America, 2018.

    Custodial History

    The Buddhist Churches of America records were originally housed at BCA headquarters in San Francisco, California. In 1998 they were transferred to the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) as a repositoried collection held at the museum, where they were stewarded until their transfer to UCLA Library Special Collections in 2018.

    Processing Information

    Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
    Processed by Lauren Zuchowski while stewarded by the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in 2016. File level inventories processed by Sandy Saeki and Eiko Masuyama, BCA members and JANM volunteers.
    Further physical processing by Krystell Jimenez, Tess Livesley-O'Neill, Kuhelika Ghosh, Mario Gallardo, and Alejandro Adame at UCLA in 2019-2020. Description by Matthew Hayes in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT) under the supervision of Courtney Dean, 2019.
    Folder titles reflect the original description created by BCA members.
    Boxes 129, 145, 147, 149, 487 were weeded from the collection and returned to donors by curator Nov. 2022.
    We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.  

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9988798343606533 

    Administrative/Biographical History

    The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) organization was originally founded in 1899 but its origins date back to the Meiji Restoration (1868) and the arrival of Japanese immigrants to the mainland United States. In the 1870s, Myonyo Shōnin, the 21st Chief Abbot of the Jōdo Shinshū ("True Pure Land") Hongwanji-ha, began sending priests overseas to study Western methods of religious education and propagation, ultimately laying the groundwork for the formation of the BCA. During this time, there were very few resources for Buddhist immigrants to receive spiritual guidance. A devout Buddhist immigrant living in California requested missionaries in San Francisco to address this issue in the late 1890s. As a result, Reverends Eryu Honda and Ejun Miyamoto visited San Francisco in 1898 to evaluate the spiritual needs of Buddhists living in America. In July 1898, thirty young men gathered at the home of Dr. Katsugoro Haida and formed the Bukkyō Seinenkai (Young Men's Buddhist Association). This association would eventually become the San Francisco Buddhist Church in 1905. Reverends Honda and Miyamoto also visited Sacramento, Seattle, and Vancouver before returning to Japan.
    Myonyo Shōnin decided to establish the North American Mission and appointed Reverend Shuye Sonada as director (kantoku) for the mission. Reverend Kakuryo Nishijima accompanied Reverend Sonada to the United States and together they left Japan on August 16, 1899 and arrived in San Francisco on September 1, 1899. The BCA considers 1899 its official year of founding. In 1905, the Hongwanji Branch Office/San Francisco YMBA changed its name to the "Buddhist Church of San Francisco." The church was almost immediately destroyed in the great earthquake of 1906, but a new property was eventually purchased and the Buddhist Church of San Francisco served as the headquarters for activities in the continental United States until World War II.
    Many Japanese missionaries continued to leave for the United States during the first decades of the 20th century to serve the religious and social needs of the Japanese immigrant population. By 1914 there were 25 temples in the United States and a growing need for stronger organizational structure as well as the development of programs for second-generation (Nisei) followers. Ministers and various representatives held their first national meeting in 1914 and officially established the Buddhist Mission of North America (BMNA). The organization was legally incorporated in 1924.
    Headquarters in Japan first gave the chief Buddhist official in the United States the designation of director and later, in 1918, bishop (sōchō), assigning him to the San Francisco temple. The director/bishop led a group of ministers within the BMNA. However, the BMNA was largely controlled not by the bishop/director, but by ministers and temples, organized and administered under the authority of their respective temple boards. Other lay organizations such as the Young Men's Buddhist Association did not fall under the direct authority of the director/bishop.
    In the early 1930s, the BMAN established the Buddhist Society of America for Caucasians (hakujin) and other English-speaking temple members. By 1934, there were chapters in ten of the temples. Five of these chapter leaders were ordained ministers. The Caucasian members of the Los Angeles branch temple (betsuin) quickly offered their assistance following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the passage of Executive Order 9066, the order to intern American citizens of Japanese ancestry. Their leader, Reverend Julius A. Goldwater, first cousin to 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, brought goods to Japanese Americans incarcerated in internment camps throughout the duration of the war.
    Topaz, California served as the temporary headquarters for the Buddhist Mission during World War II. The BMNA remained active and used this period to reorganize, and officially renamed itself the Buddhist Churches of America in 1944. The name change was initially suggested by Reverend Goldwater to help indicate that the organization's focus was on taking root in America on democratic principles rather than continuing as an instrument of the missionary work by the Hongwanji in Japan. The leadership of second-generation ministers and participating representatives were incorporated both as National Council and Board of Directors. Plans were made for the establishment of departments, which came to include an educational bureau, Sunday School department, and youth department. Foundations were also laid for the ministerial training school to serve the growing second-generation population.
    The period following World War II provided the BCA with an opportunity to establish new temples in various parts of the country as many Japanese Americans left the camps to rebuild their lives in new places such as Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Twin Cities, Minnesota; Seabrook, New Jersey. As families were rebuilding their lives, they were also restoring regular activities at their respective temples, some of which collapsed to varying degrees during the war. It was during these post-war years that the Buddhist Study Center was established within Berkeley Temple after the success of a study group for second-generation students formed by Bishop Shigefuji on the University of California's Berkeley campus. The Study Center's construction was finished in 1956, but it was eventually moved to the current Durant Street location (Berkeley, CA) in 1966 and renamed the Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS). The IBS is now a Buddhist Seminary and Graduate School.
    During the 1960s, the BCA reached a widespread vibrancy under the leadership of Bishop Shinshō Hanayama. The Lay Speakers Program was established in September 1961 to increase the number of English-speaking leaders within the BCA. These new leaders assisted ministers who were not fluent in English to create Dharma talks accessible to a younger generation. Shortly after, in October 1961, the Sustaining Membership Program was established in order to create reserve funds that would allow the BCA to meet budget emergencies without having to borrow money. In November 1961, the BCA produced and distributed the first Bodhi seals. The seals served two purposes: to fundraise for the BCA and to promote the Buddha's teachings. These programs flourished in the 1960s and early 1970s. Other successful programs included the Disability Income and Accidental Death Benefit Programs for ministers and BCA employees, the Buddhist Music Workshop, a pension plan for ministers, the Fraternal Benefit Association, and the Relevant American Buddhist (RAB) Enterprise. Additionally, many new buildings were constructed for various purposes. Twenty-four new Buddhist temple buildings were constructed along with seven social halls and nine education buildings. A home for the elderly, student dormitories, and residences for ministers were also constructed.
    This period of vitality ended by the late 1970s and the BCA struggled with financial instability. The BCA decentralized department activities and phased out the RAB enterprise. Young people were not interested or actively participating in activities despite attempts to revitalize the youth programs in 1978. The BCA focused heavily on Sunday School materials in 1979 and 1980. The National Council approved the Campaign for Buddhism in America in February 1982 with a goal of raising fifteen million dollars in five years. The National Council was able to raise ten million dollars in that five year period. The BCA Endowment foundation similarly made remarkable contributions to the BCA and its Board of Trustees eventually took over administrative responsibility for the Campaign for Buddhism in America program, and allocated funds for specific programs such as education programs, publications, scholarships, and ministers' benefits.
    As the BCA has crossed into the 21st century, its members have worked hard to revitalize the organization. Membership has increased in some temples and outreach efforts have been successful in diversifying temple membership.
    Source: Lauren Zuchowski, Japanese American National Museum. Biographical history information, April 2016.

    Scope and Contents

    The collection includes correspondence between headquarters in the US, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji headquarters in Kyoto, Japan, and individual temples, as well as meeting minutes and conference materials, education related records, publications, financial records and audiovisual materials in a wide variety of formats.
    The records document three major periods of evolution experienced by the BCA as it transformed from a system of missionary work into a major institution with a nationwide network of churches. Although the records are generally organized according to the departments that created them, the chronological time frame below is useful to understand the influence of these periods.
    1. Records created between 1899 and 1942 document the establishment and early growth of the organization. They provide insight into the formation of the Buddhist Mission of North America (BMNA) and demonstrate the BMNA's strong ties to headquarters in Kyoto. During this period, ministers and bishops for the United States and Canada were assigned from Japan and a great deal of correspondence and reports were sent to and received from Japan. Most records created during this period are in Japanese.
    2. Records created between 1942 and 1946 document the World War II period during which most Japanese and Japanese American ministers and members of Buddhist Mission of North America experienced evacuation and incarceration in American concentration camps. These records document a period of organizational "Americanization" including incorporation as the Buddhist Churches of America in 1944, and a period of reorganization following release from camps, including the assignment of ministers to new communities. During this period, correspondence between American temples, ministers, and headquarters staff is in both Japanese and English.
    3. Records created after 1946 document the immediate post World War II period, including correspondence between ministers (and/or temples) and the Bishop regarding their respective status after incarceration, and show the development of the Buddhist Churches of America with its various programs, affiliated groups, publications, and organized network of temples and districts. Most records from this period are in English and clearly originate from an office, program or department of the BCA.

    Arrangement

    This collection has been arranged into the following sub-groups and series:
    • Record Group 1: Buddhist Mission of North America, 1832-1998
      • Series 1: Subject files, 1900-1955
      • Series 2: Financial documents, 1904-1957
      • Series 3: Publications, 1832-1998
      • Series 4: Directories, 1919-1950
      • Series 5: Office of the Bishop, 1935-1997
    • Record Group 2: Buddhist Churches of America, 1944-2017
      • Series 1: National Board and Council Annual Reports, 1948-2015
      • Series 2: Directories, 1951-2017
      • Series 3: Office of the Bishop, 1946-2017
      • Series 4: Administrative Office, 1898-2013
      • Series 5: Financial documents, 1945-2007
      • Series 6: Office of Education, 1914-2017
      • Series 7: Program materials,1907-2010
      • Series 8: Ministers' writings, 1902-2012
      • Series 9: Publications, 1940-2016
      • Series 10: Districts and temples, 1889-2015
      • Series 11: Affiliate organizations, 1913-2015
      • Series 12: Photographs and scrapbooks, 1901-2005
      • Series 13: Audiovisual materials, 1926-2014
      • Series 14: Ephemera, 1914-2002
    • Record Group 3: Manuscripts, 1888-2014

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Missionary
    Buddhism -- United States -- History
    Buddhist Churches of America -- Archives