http://sacramentonichirenchurch.org/

Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church, 5191 24th Street, Sacramento, CA (2026)

05/20/2026

Don't miss out on this opportunity to get some great Japanese food. On the menu this Summer: Teriyaki Beef Bento, Teriyaki Beef Sandwich, Teriyaki Half Chicken, Udon and Agesushi

Order now: https://sacramentonichirenchurch.org/shop/

Food will be ready for pickup Saturday, June 13, between noon and 2pm

05/17/2026

Have you placed your order yet for the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church Summer Food Sale. On the menu: Teriyaki Beef Bento, Teriyaki Beef Sandwich, Teriyaki Half Chicken, Udon and Agesushi

Order now: https://sacramentonichirenchurch.org/shop/

Food will be ready for pickup Saturday, June 13, between noon and 2pm

05/08/2026

It's time to place your orders for the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church annual Summer Food Sale.

https://sacramentonichirenchurch.org/shop/

Orders will be ready for pickup Saturday, June 13, between noon and 2pm

Don't delay. We have a limit on how many half chickens we can cook.

05/04/2026

The Privilege of Chanting the Sutra
Part Two: San Francisco Nichiren Buddhist Temple

As I began my responsibilities at the San Francisco (SF) temple, I encountered a different set of challenges from those I had faced in Los Angeles (LA). The SF temple was not a traditional building, but a one-bedroom apartment where I also lived. This was very different from the temple life I had expected. Although the SF temple covered the apartment rent and associated expenses, I did not receive a salary. Once a month, I held services at the apartment and also traveled to LA to conduct services for the Shintokal members, who kindly paid for my airfare and provided me with a place to stay in their homes. During these visits, the Shintokal offered me a donation of $50, which became my only source of income. As mentioned in a prior newsletter, Mr. Yoshiaki Nunome, who operated a restaurant in Japantown and whose father and brother were Nichiren Shu ministers in Japan, supported me during this time by bringing food to my apartment.

While learning how to survive was one challenge, another was how to fulfill my duties as a minister. My master had taught me that a priest should not take on secular employment, and I followed this teaching strictly. He also emphasized that one of the most important daily responsibilities of a minister is to chant the sutra. During my training in Japan, I had always been able to do so freely – at my master’s temple, at Minobu, and later while studying in Tokyo. In SF, however, this became nearly impossible. Even chanting in a low voice led to complaints from neighbors and I eventually had to resort to chanting in a whisper. The only time I was able to chant in a normal voice was during the monthly services.

As I was still navigating these difficulties, another challenge arose. A couple years after I moved to SF, I was informed by the bishop of the Nichiren Shu Order of North America (NONA) that the SF temple would be officially closed, as the San Jose temple had been recently established. Members in the Bay Area would be asked to attend services there. The rent would no longer be paid, and I would need to leave the apartment by the end of the month. With no salary and no means to afford housing in SF, I was forced to consider my next steps. Although I thought about returning to Japan, I felt a deep responsibility to continue serving the Shintokai. At the same time, many of the SF members were elderly widows, who could not easily travel to San Jose. I remember one member asking, “Will we no longer have a place to pray together?” Hearing this, I felt a renewed responsibility to support their practice and resolved to remain in SF, even though I no longer had a place to live.

Once again, Mr. Nunome came to my aid and offered me a space in his apartment that he was renting. Without his support, I would have had no choice but to become homeless. I am to this day, extremely grateful for his kindness. However, even there, I faced the similar difficulties – I could not chant the sutra in a normal voice, as neighbors would complain by knocking from below. Realizing that we could not hold services there, one of the members, Mrs. Masako Sano, a devout follower of Nichiren Shu, offered her home as a place to gather. Each month, I would drive and pick up the elderly members, bring them to her home for services, and take them home afterward.

Approximately a year later, a Shintokai member who learned of my situation began providing financial support in appreciation for the kito services I performed. Mrs. Sano’s son also supported me by asking me to teach judo to his sons in his garage a few times a week, for which he offered meals and a monetary donation to help cover transportation costs. With their support, I was eventually able to save up enough money to rent an apartment of my own. Like with my prior residences, I still could not chant freely in a normal voice. However, I was able to hold services there for the SF members, continuing to bring them together each month. In this way, the Shintokal members made it possible for the SF members to continue their practice, while the SF members, in turn, allowed me to continue traveling to LA to support the Shintokai. As I will share in Part Three, even after I became the head minister of the Sacramento temple, I continued traveling to SF each month to hold services for these members until they were no longer able to attend due to age.

Like the Shintokai, this is a story of individuals who, despite having no temple or formal place of worship, remained deeply committed to their practice. However, this is also a story of my own struggles to fulfill my duties as an overseas minister. I was able to continue serving both the Shintokai and the SF members due to the support of various people. Yet, I often felt that I was not fully carrying out my duties as a minister in the way I had been taught, especially in something as fundamental as chanting the sutra each day without concern. Through these experiences, I came to realize that the ability to chant the sutra freely, in an appropriate setting is not something to be taken for granted. This understanding would ultimately shape both my practice and how I view my responsibilities as an overseas minister in the years that followed.

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi
May / June, 2026

04/26/2026

On the dawn of April 28, 1253, at the age of thirty-two, Nichiren stood atop a hill called Asahigamori at Mt. Kiyosumi (also referred to as Mt. Seichō) in Chiba Prefecture. Facing the rising sun over the Pacific Ocean, he chanted the Odaimoku (Namu Myoho Renge Kyo) in a loud, resounding voice, establishing his Lotus Sutra school.

Learn more about Nichiren and Nichiren Shu in our newly improved Study Center: https://sacramentonichirenchurch.org/study/

02/28/2026

The Privilege of Chanting the Sutra
Part One: The Los Angeles Nichiren Sangha Association

By Ven. Kenjo Igarashi on February 27, 2026
When I left Japan in November 1975, I was a young minister in my twenties who had recently been assigned as an assistant minister at the Los Angeles (LA) temple. My plan was to stay in the United States for approximately three years as part of my training and to learn about overseas propagation work before ultimately returning to Japan. At the time, immigration procedures allowed religious workers to obtain permanent residency before arriving in the United States. The Vietnam War had only recently ended, and I recall being nervous as I applied for my Green Card. I had heard stories of ministers who were asked during their interviews whether they would serve if drafted and felt obliged to agree for fear of denial. My own interview, however, was brief, and I was soon approved. Little did I know that having this Green Card would ultimately shape my life.

From the moment I arrived in LA, I realized that things were different from what I had been told. For example, young overseas ministers were expected to attend free English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the local community college to better serve the members. However, because most members were Issei and Kibei Nisei who spoke Japanese, the head minister felt it was unnecessary for me to learn English and did not permit me to attend these classes. It was only after a member noticed this situation that I was able to briefly enroll.

Less than a year later, difficulties at the temple resulted in the departure of nearly one hundred families. I also left my position. Unlike in Japan where several Nichiren Shu temples can be found within the same city, LA had only one. As a result, these former members were left without a place to gather and practice. I myself was also unsure of my next steps and considered returning to Japan. Soon afterward, however, the San Francisco (SF) temple needed a new head minister, and I was assigned to that position later that month. It was around the same time that the former members approached me and asked if I would guide their practice. Moved by their sincerity and dedication, I agreed to help, and with the understanding of the SF members, I began traveling to LA once a month to conduct services for them.

Because these activities were conducted independently of the LA temple, we received no financial support or official recognition from the Nichiren Shu headquarters in Japan. Nevertheless, the members came together and contributed whatever time and resources they could to make the services possible. At first, we met in a small hall attached to a retirement home in Boyle Heights, and later at the Long Beach Japanese Cultural Center. The members gathered the necessary items for the altar, which we assembled before each service and carefully taken apart afterward. Certain families prepared offerings, while others stored and transported the altar items. Even without a permanent temple, the room was full at every service, with members dressed in suits and their best attire out of respect and devotion to their practice. When we chanted together, the atmosphere felt no different from and at times even more powerful than anything I had experienced before or since in a temple.

We came to call this group the Los Angeles Nichiren Sangha Association, or "Shintokai" ("the gathering of [Nichiren Shu] followers"). Its purpose was not to recruit new members but to provide these families with a place to continue their practice. At first, I thought that many would eventually want to return to the LA temple. Instead, a strong bond formed, and most remained with the Shintokai for the rest of their lives. The children and grandchildren also attended, many of whom had never known a permanent temple building. What I expected to last only a short time continued for 49 years.

The Shintokai endured without a physical temple because of the strong faith, effort, and commitment of its members. It is easy to take a place of worship for granted and assume it will always exist. Yet for the Shintokai, the opportunity to practice and chant the sutra together was a privilege. Although no building bears its name and little written record of its existence remains, the Shintokai is an important part of the history of Nichiren Shu in America. There is much we can learn from the determination of the Shintokai members to continue their practice, regardless of circumstances.

Few ministers are given the opportunity to witness such dedication as I experienced through the Shintokai. I am deeply grateful to the families who entrusted me with this role, as well as to the members of the SF and Sacramento temples who allowed me to continue this work. It has been a true privilege to have practiced alongside them.

01/16/2026

The True Meaning of Ofuse

Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a restful holiday season and a good start to the new year.

Since ending the season of “giving” just last month, I have found myself reflecting on how this idea is interpreted in the Buddhist context. In Buddhism, this concept is known as ofuse, commonly translated as “religious offerings.” Many people today associate ofuse primarily with money, in particular, donations to a temple or offerings made in connection with funerals and other special services. While monetary offerings can be part of ofuse, they represent only one aspect of its meaning. I feel that our understanding of ofuse has greatly changed since I first became a minister several decades ago. In recent years, something essential about it has been lost or misunderstood.

To better understand ofuse, it is helpful to look back to the time of Nichiren Shonin in the 13th century. Nichiren Shonin devoted his life to propagating the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, initially as a fiery street preacher in Kamakura, the political and cultural capital of Japan at the time. However, he was also known as a devoted and prolific letter writer, spreading the teachings through correspondence with his followers. These letters were often read aloud within households and communities, allowing propagation through personal relationships rather than formal institutions.

In return, his followers supported him and his practice through ofuse, which could take many forms, including food, clothing, money, time, or acts of care. In this sense, ofuse was not payment for services rendered; it was an expression of gratitude from those who had received the teachings, and a sincere wish that their offering would help sustain both their own practice and continued propagation of the Lotus Sutra. It arose naturally from the hearts of the followers, not from any request or demand made by Nichiren Shonin.

In his writings, Nichiren Shonin frequently expressed deep gratitude for the ofuse he received. He compared this relationship to an oil lamp: the priest is the flame, but without the oil, the support of his followers, the light cannot continue to burn. Material offerings sustained him physically, but more importantly, ofuse enabled him to continue praying and propagating the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. After he settled down in Mt. Minobu, it would support not only him, but the training of his disciples.

I came to understand this meaning of ofuse during my very first 100-day aragyo practice. During this training, we live with very little food, no heating or light, and minimal sleep. Wearing only a thin h**p robe and no socks, the cold is constant and severe. However, what sustained me during that time was the warmth of a simple cotton under-robe worn beneath my h**p robe. My mother had sewn it for me as her way of supporting my practice. That garment represented her time, effort, care, and concern for my well-being. Through this experience, I realized that this was the true spirit of ofuse – to feel the intention and compassion of the person offering it.

Unfortunately, in recent years, I feel that this understanding of ofuse has been increasingly overshadowed. In some cases, religious practice across various Buddhist sects has come to resemble a business, with some ministers and temples setting fixed fees and issuing detailed bills for funerals and other services. When I heard of this, I could not help but feel concerned about the future of Buddhism. This is not the ofuse Nichiren Shonin described in his letters. He did not place prices on the propagation of the Lotus Sutra, nor did he demand offerings from those he taught. Ofuse was always about what the donor felt was appropriate, offered freely and sincerely. At the same time, it is also true, as Nichiren Shonin acknowledged, that without ofuse, the institution or temple and the people who propagate the Lotus Sutra cannot survive or continue their work.

As we begin this new year, I invite you to take a moment to reflect on what ofuse means to you. It is not about the amount or expectations, but about the intention behind an offering. Whether it takes the form of material support, time, sincere practice, ofuse is an expression of gratitude for the teachings we receive and the connections that sustain us. It is my hope that by returning to this understanding, we can continue to nurture an environment rooted in mutual care, humility, and appreciation, just as Nichiren Shonin envisioned.

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi
January / February, 2026

01/01/2026

Ringing in 2026

10/30/2025

The Art of ‘Cleaning’ Our Spirit

I am sure I am not the only one surprised at how quickly 2025 has flown by. With the end of the year approaching, it is also the time to start thinking about all the tasks we need to complete before beginning the new year. As many of you know, in Japan, one of the year-end traditions is the comprehensive and intensive cleaning before the New Year. While this usually refers to our homes, it can also include public spaces such as parks and community centers. Of course, we will also hold our annual end-of-the-year cleaning of the Church in late December.

However, regardless of the end-of-the-year cleaning, I make it a point to maintain all aspects of the property regularly throughout the year. As many of you may know, I have made it my weekly commitment to care for the property grounds, including mowing the grass, pruning the trees, raking the leaves, and general cleaning. Only recently did I realize that there are over forty trees, shrubs, and bushes on the Church property! It is a responsibility that I have carried out consistently since becoming the head minister of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. One of my reasons for doing this is to make sure that the Church remains a place where everyone who visits can feel at peace and devote themselves fully to their practice.

As I reflect on this weekly commitment of mine, I realize now that in the beginning, I focused primarily on appearance. For example, I made sure that all the dead leaves and debris were collected, the lawn was mowed to a uniform length, and all branches that disrupted the shape of the shrubs and trees were trimmed. However, soon after, I noticed that I would find myself continuously raking up large piles of dead leaves and debris that kept accumulating under each shrub and bush week after week. I decided to take a closer look inside the shrubs and discovered dense inner branches that hindered growth and collected debris. It became clear to me that proper maintenance required pruning not just the surface, but also removing what was hidden within, allowing the plants to breathe, grow, and remain healthy. Much of the debris that accumulates within these shrubs is beyond our control the result of natural forces like wind and rain. Yet it is still possible to minimize this buildup by removing the inner branches and water sprouts. Since then, I have made it a habit to carefully prune these inner branches, even when it means cutting what appears to be a healthy branch. This selective pruning is essential for the plant’s overall health and continued growth.

This idea can also be applied to our Buddhist practice. As I mentioned earlier, every time we practice and accumulate benefits, we are also “cleaning” our spirit. Imagine our spirit as the shrub I described earlier. Each time we practice, we trim the outer branches, shaping the shrub and refining its form. However, to truly purify our spirit, we must also look within – pruning from the inside by examining ourselves more deeply and releasing what blocks our progress. This can be difficult, because just as pruning sometimes requires cutting even healthy branches so that a tree may flourish, true spiritual maintenance demands more than surface care. Our regular practice alone is sometimes not enough. In the same way that debris beyond our control can build up inside a shrub, no matter how diligently we practice or how pure we may feel, simply living in this world causes us to unknowingly accumulate impurities and karma through our six senses.

In the same way that we can carefully prune the inner branches and remove debris from within a shrub, there are also ways to purify the deeper, more hidden regions of our spirit. In Buddhism, we speak of the need to purify our six senses (rokkon shōjō). Although there are many ways to do this, one important method is through purification services (kitō), which help us remove the inner “branches” within our spirit that block growth and clarity. When we think of kitō, many people associate it primarily with wishes or requests – for example, recovery from illness, personal happiness, or success in life. While these intentions are natural, they represent only one layer of its meaning. Every person carries some form of suffering, and it is natural to wish for relief. Yet, when we focus only on escaping suffering, it can become difficult to fully concentrate on our practice. The true purpose of kitō is not simply to grant wishes, but to help us uncover and address the root causes of our suffering the inner obstacles that we cannot easily remove on our own. In this way, kitō serves as a form of deep spiritual pruning, helping us cleanse what lies within and restore clarity to the heart.
As we prepare to close this year, I hope each of us can take a moment to look within – to clear away what has accumulated and to begin the new year refreshed. I hope that through continued practice and the power of purification, we can continue to nurture clarity within ourselves and in the world around us.

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi
November / December 2025

09/26/2025

The delicious Teriyaki Half-Chicken is no longer available as part of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church's Fall Food Sale, but we still have

Agesushi
Teriyaki Beef Sandwich
Udon

The last day to place an order is Friday, Oct. 3

The food will be available for pickup on Saturday, Oct. 11, from noon to 2pm.

Don't miss out. ORDER TODAY https://sacramentonichirenchurch.org/shop/

09/05/2025

The Significance of Prayer During Higan

As summer ends, we start the official transition into the fall season with Higan. It is a time to primarily self-reflect and focus on your Buddhist studies. However, as I have mentioned before, throughout our practice, we also find ways to help others in all realms of existence, especially our ancestors. I realize that the multiple underlying purposes behind Higan can remain very confusing for many, especially because many seen to overlap with those of other Buddhist observances. I was recently reminded of a conversation I had several years ago with a member. They said, “There are many special Buddhist services and traditions that happen throughout the year. Higan, Obon, memorial services for the deceased, etc. But many of them seem very similar – they all emphasize the importance of praying for your ancestors. I have a hard time understanding the differences between them.” The concept of ancestor veneration is prevalent in Asian cultures. For example, in Japan it is common for people to spend time with their families, as well as visit and clean their ancestors’ graves during these important Buddhist observances. However, this concept is not as common in Western cultures. For that reason, I would like to take this time to further explain why we honor our ancestors during Higan.

We observe Higan twice a year for approximately a week around the time of the spring and fall equinox. The reason for this timing stems from the agricultural history of Japan. Rice farmers would be busy from March when they would sow the seeds until September when they would harvest their crop. Higan is observed before and right after the end of this rice cultivation season, outside of which they were expected to have more time away from the field to focus on their Buddhist studies.

Aside from this timing, one of the major differences between Higan and other Buddhist observances is the emphasis on studying the Six Paramitas, which I’ve explained previously. Briefly, they include the following: (1) generosity, (2) observance of Buddhist precepts, (3) patience, (4) energy and diligence, (5) meditation, and (6) wisdom cultivated by studying Buddhism.

As I mentioned earlier, I have previously spoken about how we strive to help others during this time of Higan. One of the ways we do this is by practicing these Six Paramitas with our ancestors. What differentiates us from the deceased is our physical body and the five senses we use in our practice. Through these senses, we can garner good karma and virtues, but also unknowingly accumulate bad karma through actions we partake in or even witness. Without these senses, our ancestors cannot accumulate virtues in the same way that we do in this human realm. Any deceased, especially in the suffering world, therefore have a difficult time moving to a higher realm. Higan is a time when our ancestors can practice “with us,” meaning at the same time. This is different from Obon when the deceased are allowed to visit the living and practice with us at the same time and in the same location. In a way, during Higan, our ancestors are not only practicing themselves, but also through us. The good karma we accumulate during Higan benefits not only ourselves but can also be shared with our ancestors. Using the virtues we accumulate during Higan, the deceased can gradually try to progress to a higher realm. This is also a reminder that as humans, we ourselves still have work to do in order to move to a higher realm. Our senses make us unique and provide an advantage for us to accumulate virtues in this current realm that we live in. Therefore, our practice and prayer during Higan holds a special meaning. I hope that many of you will use Higan as an opportunity to focus on your Buddhist studies, keeping in mind that our ancestors are practicing with us during this time.

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi
September / October 2025

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