http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8v412d7 No online items Finding aid for the Buddhist Churches of America Records LSC.2364 Finding aid prepared by Lauren Zuchowski (Japanese American National Museum), 2016; Matthew Hayes, Krystell Jimenez, Alejandro Adame, and Tess Livesley-O'Neill, 2019-2020. UCLA Library Special Collections Online finding aid last updated 2020 November 30. Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library Box 951575 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575 [email protected] URL: https://www.library.ucla.edu/special-collections Finding aid for the Buddhist Churches LSC.2364 1 of America Records LSC.2364 Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections Title: Buddhist Churches of America records Creator: Buddhist Churches of America Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2364 Physical Description: 435 Linear Feet (291 record cartons, 124 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. 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 related to financial materials are currently restricted pending curatorial review. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page. 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 [email protected]. 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. While stewarded by the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), the collection was processed by Lauren Zuchowski, April 2016. File-level inventories were created by Sandy Saeki and Eiko Masuyama, BCA members and JANM volunteers. Further physical processing and data remediation occurred following the collection's transfer to UCLA by Krystell Jimenez, Tess Livesley-O'Neill, Kuhelika Ghosh, Mario Gallardo, and Alejandro Adame, 2019-2020. Enhanced 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. UCLA Catalog Record ID UCLA Catalog Record ID: 8879834 Administrative/Biographical History Finding aid for the Buddhist Churches LSC.2364 2 of America Records LSC.2364 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