Tendai in the United States
and North America

Tendai-shu has been an active presence in the United States and North America for what can only be considered a brief period of time - especially in light of its long and colorful history in Japan.

Prior to the twentieth century, there is virtually no record of Tendai-shu activity in North America. However, it is likely that, with the influx of Asian immigrants to the West coast in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Tendai-shu arrived unheralded along with other schools of Buddhism. Records also show that Tendai representatives were present at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893.

Around this same time, a scholarly interest in Buddhism developed on the part of some intellectuals, including an east coast group known as the “Boston Buddhists.” Members of this group included William Sturgis Bigelow, whose large collection of Japanese and Buddhist art forms an integral part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Another Group member, Ernest Fenallosa, was also a great devotee of the arts. A third member of this group, Okakura Kakuzo, translated a section of Chih’i’s Mo-ho-chi-kuan into English. Bigelow’s and Fenallosa’s interest in Buddhism led them to formally take the Bodhisattva Precepts at the Tendai Ordination Platform on Mt. Hiei, in Japan. In his will, Bigelow requested that he be cremated and that half his ashes be sent to Mt. Hiei.

As the home of many Japanese and Japanese-Americans, it is not surprising that Hawaii has more Tendai temples than any other state. The first formal Tendai presence there dates to 1918 with the establishment the Fudo-son temple (designated a Betsuin in 1936.) This temple was temporarily closed during the second world war and, ultimately, closed permanently in 1950. However, the Tendai Overseas Missionary Society (Jigyodon) helped reestablish the Hawaii Betsuin at a different location in 1973. Reverend Ryokan Ara was its first Bishop.

Hawaii is also home to the Palolo Kwannon Temple. Its sangha originally met in a residence but, to accommodate rapidly expanding membership, a temple was constructed and dedicated in June 1935. The Matsumoto family has been in charge of the temple since its founding, with two women and two men from that family serving as its head priests. Reverend Eshin Matsumoto, the fourth head priest, succeeded her husband, Bishop Chiko Matsumoto, upon his death.

In 1975, a remarkable woman, the Ven. Jikyu Rose, left Hawaii for Mt. Hiei to complete her training for Tendai priesthood. Upon her return to Hawaii, she founded a temple in her own home and, the following year, she and her husband purchased two acres of land to build the present Koganji-in. In 1981, more than 500 people celebrated the dedication of a new main hall at the temple.

The Reverend Jikai Clark Choffy studied with Ven. Jion Haba and was ordained in July, 1975, on Mt. Hiei. He has done extensive study and training in esoteric practices (mikkyo) and has recently opened a small private pilgrimage, ‘Mitsugon-an’, at his residence in Austin, Texas.

The Ven. Masao Shoshin Ichishima, who worked with Bishop Ara in Hawaii and who has also taught at the University of Hawaii and the University of California at Berkeley, has been very instrumental in bringing Tendai practices to the United States. He trained two Americans in the late 1970’s; Joshin Jonathan Driscol and Daishin David Hall. Joshin Driscol completed training on Mt. Hiei in 1979 and returned to the United States in 1982 after a Buddhist pilgrimage throughout Southeast Asia and India. He is currently living in New Mexico, has a number of Internet-based students and performs many priestly functions in his local area.

The Ven. Monshin Paul Naamon is another American student of the Ven. Ichishima. Monshin, who had already been a practicing Buddhist for nearly twenty years, began his studies under Ichishima-sensei in 1989 while attending Taisho University in Tokyo. He received ordination in 1992 and practiced as a priest for two and a half years at Tamon-in in Japan. During this time, under Reverend Ichishima’s guidance, he translated a number of Tendai texts into English and led retreats

In 1995, encouraged by Reverend Ichishima, Monshin and his wife, Shumon Tamami Naamon, opened the Karuna Tendai Dharma Center in Canaan, New York. Monshin and Shumon modeled the Dharma Center after Japanese village temples like the one they administered at Tamon-in.

When it first opened in an old Shaker-style farmhouse in a corner of rural Columbia County, New York, the Karuna Tendai Dharma Center hosted a small number of participants. The group gathered for lectures and meditation sitting in a small dining room or on a small, glassed-in porch. Eventually, a section of an old barn was transformed into a shikando, which boasted a wood stove for cold winter evening meditations and a lovely view of the rural countryside through old barn windows.

For ten years, Monshin and Shumon Naamon have guided and instructed students in the history and practices of Tendai-shu. During this period, the Dharma Center has grown to include over 100 families from a wide area of New York and Massachusetts. Branch sangha have also been formed in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Albany and Buffalo, New York and in Germany and Denmark.

Monshin and Shumon have also developed a plan for training advanced students who are contemplating ordination into the Tendai priesthood. To this end, a rigorous ten-day retreat is held each summer for advanced study and practice. Priests from Japan are instrumental in developing and conducting this training and one, the Ven. Gojun Terada, is currently assigned to the Tendai Buddhist Institute to assist in all aspects of its activities.

After an official visit by Tendai-shu Jigyodan in 2001, the Karuna Tendai Dharma Center was designated the first Betsu-in - or Branch temple - of Enryaku-ji in North America.

With plans for the training of many more priests from throughout the western world well under way, the future of Tendai-shu looks bright - on both the national and international fronts - and the continued spread of the Dharma is assured.