05/10/2026
（日本語あり）Eight years after our last appearance, Seattle Koyasan has returned to Sakura-Con. Sakura-Con is the largest and longest-running anime convention in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, attracting 50,000 attendees over three days each year. Amidst the more than 1,000 exhibiting booths, we were granted a prime location right next to the booth of the Consulate-General of Japan in Seattle.
Despite our long absence, a steady stream of visitors flowed continuously through our booth. They came to confess their worries and suffering. With barely a moment to step away—not even to use the restroom—I offered my wholehearted prayers for each individual. I performed the ritual of infusing a spirit into each omamori right in front of the purchaser—a service akin to offering "customized omamori"—while simultaneously performing a Kaji (Shingon empowerment) for each person.
During this event, I came to a profound realization: the "malady of anxiety" has become even more severe among young people than ever before. As they handed me the omamori they had chosen, I noticed that quite a few people had hands that trembled ever so slightly. Naturally, the demographic of Sakura-Con attendees differs vastly from that of the people who typically visit our temple. In the case of the former, the vast majority are individuals who have never visited a Buddhist temple nor read a single book on Buddhism. Consequently, there is no pre-existing affinity or connection to Buddhism among those visiting our booth. And yet—despite the differences in ethnic, age, and cultural and religious backgrounds separating me from the person standing in front of me—the barriers between us would dissolve as I prayed, and something profound would connect the two living bodies.
I did not experience this phenomenon for the first time at Sakura-Con, however; rather, it occurred nine years ago, in the early summer, during the Dragon Festival in Chinatown. On that occasion, I spent the entire time providing Kaji at a street-side booth. One late afternoon, while offering prayers for an elderly woman who had been brought to the booth in a wheelchair by her family, I had a mysterious experience. I was suddenly overcome by the sensation that this woman—aged and weathered by a lifetime of hardships—was actually my own daughter, who had traveled back from the future specifically to see me. Of course, I died long before my daughter reached that age, but nevertheless, I found myself silently saying to my aging daughter, "You've walked this far persevering through life…" and unconsciously praying as if embracing the old woman. When I finished praying and met her radiant face, I knew it wasn't just a one-sided mental scape.
At this year's Sakura Con, too, after praying, the anxious expressions they had when they first visited the booth were gone. It was as if they had unexpectedly reunited with a long-lost family member in the middle of a bustle crowd. Some had tears in their eyes, others streamed down their cheeks. Some even shyly asked, "Do you have any tissues?", so we ended up keeping a box of Kleenex at the booth.
To make a slight leap in thought: there is the highest virtue in Confucianism called Jin（仁） . Simply put, it signifies cherishing a stranger—someone encountered for the very first time on a street corner—as dearly as an old friend, and treating the one accordingly. Kaji serves to unlock the formidable door that looms between the self and the other, thereby Jin（仁） is generated in the borderless space. Were every door encircling each of myself and the other to be thrown wide open, the person standing before me and I would meet within the realm of the "Primordial Non-arising of the Syllable *A*（阿字本不生）—without beginning or end"; in that moment, I would become you, and you would become me. This state is Jin（仁）; it is Karuna (悲); and for this reason, that space and time is known as Dainichi Nyorai (Mahāvairocana).
In Kōbō Daishi’s works, Sango-Shiiki（三教指帰）(Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings), there appears the following famous passage (Excerpt from “The Complete Works of Kobo Daishi Kukai, Volume 6”, published by Chikuma Shobo):
Kyobo Inshi (虚亡隠士: the Hermit of Empty Illusion who represents Taoism) replied, "Observing you closely, I see that you differ from the ordinary people of this world. Looking at your head, I see not a single strand of hair; yet looking at your body, I see that you possess many belongings. From which province or prefecture do you hail? Whose child are you? And whose disciple have you become?"
Upon hearing this, Kamei Kotsuji (仮名乞児: the Beggar of Tentative Name who represents Buddhism) burst into hearty laughter and spoke thus: "In the Three Realms of Delusion—the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Realm of Formlessness—I have no fixed home. I dwell in no permanent abode within the Six Paths of Existence: Hell, the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, the Realm of Beasts, the Realm of Asuras, the Realm of Humans, or the Realm of Heavenly Beings. Those who undergo the cycle of rebirth within these Six Paths may, at one moment, claim the heavens as their nation, and at the next, make hell their home. At times, I have been your wife or your child; at other times, your father or your mother. At one moment, I have taken a Demon King as my teacher; at another, a heretic as my friend. The hungry ghosts and the beasts—all have, at some point, been my wife or your child. From the beginning of time until this very moment, there has been no discontinuity; nor, looking from the present back to the beginning, has there ever been a fixed, unchanging identity. Like a ring, we spin endlessly, being reborn through the Four Modes of Birth—from the womb, from the egg, from moisture, and through metamorphosis. Like a thundering chariot wheel, we ceaselessly traverse the Six Paths of Existence. Though your hair is as white as snow, that does not necessarily mean you are my elder; and though my hair remains jet-black, that does not mean I am your junior. For you and I, since the beginningless past, have ceaselessly died and been reborn, transforming and shifting through the impermanence of existence. Thus, there is no fixed province, no fixed prefecture, and no fixed kin to call my own." (Excerpt from Sango Shiiki ends here)
With a final Kaji given upon a visitor who arrived five minutes past the closing time on the final day, our temple’s exhibition at Sakura-Con 2026 came to a close. "Thank you for being here"—visitors said this to us time and again. No, the gratitude is entirely ours. For it is thanks to your need for us that Seattle Koyasan is permitted to exist. Throughout those three days immersed in the samadhi of Kaji, the sentiment that constantly filled my heart was not one of arrogance—the notion that the strong was reaching down to aid the weak—but rather a sense of the Japanese saying, "A patient can't help empathizing another who has the same sickness." It was a deeply natural impulse: in that fleeting instant when fellow travelers—journeying through eternal time and space amidst ceaseless flux and change—meet and then part ways, one cannot help but wish for healing and a safe, healthy journey ahead for any companion bearing wounds in their heart or body. Farewell—until we meet again somewhere in the infinite expanse of time!
(*Photos published here with their permission)
前回の参加から8年を経て、シアトル高野山はサクラコン（Sakura-Con）へ戻ってきた。サクラコンは、米国北西部最大かつ最古の歴史を持つアニメコンベンションで、毎年3日間で5万人を集客する。千を超えるブースが出展するなか、シアトル総領事館ブースの隣という好スペースを与えられた。
ブランクにもかかわらず、来訪者が途切れることなく当山ブースを訪れる。そして悩みや苦しみを打ち明けてゆく。お手洗いに立つ暇もなく、一人ひとりのことを渾身よりおがむ。御守一体一体の魂入れの作法を購入者の前で行う、いわばカスタマイズ御守の提供だが、同時に一人ひとりの加持も行う。
今回、若者たちの間で不安という病が以前にも増して深刻化しているというのを実感した。選んだ御守を私に手渡す時に、その手が微かに震えている人がけっこうおられた。サクラコン来訪者の層と通常当山を訪れる人々の層は、当然ながら大いに異なる。前者の場合、これまで仏教寺院を訪れたこともなければ、仏教に関する本を読んだこともない人が大半である。それゆえ当山ブース来訪者と仏教の間に、すでに醸成されている親和性はない。であるにもかかわらず、目の前にいる人種も年齢も文化的そして宗教的背景も異なる人と私のあいだの間仕切りが、おがんでいるうちに溶解し、二つの生体間で何かがつながる。
このことを初めて体験したのはサクラコンではなく、9年前の初夏、チャイナタウンのドラゴン祭だった。この時は街頭ブースで加持をし続けた。車椅子で家族に連れて来られた老女をおがんでいた遅い午後、不思議な体験をした。歳を取ってさまざまな苦労を重ねた自分の娘が、まるで未来から私に会いに来ているような感覚に襲われたのだ。もちろん娘がそんな歳になるずいぶん前に私は死んでいるわけだが、にもかかわらず、私は年老いた自分の娘に「おまえ、ようがんばって人生歩いて来たんやなあ」と心の中で声をかけ、知らず知らずのうちにその老女を抱きしめるような思いでおがんでいた。おがみ終わって、晴れやかな顔の彼女と目を見合わせた時、けっして私の想念の一方通行でないことがわかった。
今回のサクラコンにおいても、おがみ終わるとそこにはブースを訪れた時の不安げな表情はなく、例えていえば、長いあいだ会っていなかった家族と、雑踏の中で思いもよらず再会したかのような面持ちがあった。瞳に涙をたたえている人、頬に流れ落ちる人。ちょっと恥ずかしそうに「ティッシュペーパーないですか？」ということにもなり、ブースにはクリネックスを一箱用意しておくことになった。
少々飛躍するが、儒教の最高の徳目は仁である。簡単に言えば、街角で初めて会った他人であっても昔なじみの友のように大切に思い、そしてそのように遇する、ということである。加持は、自と他の間に聳え立つ頑強な扉を開き、そこに仁が生起する。もし、それぞれ他者と自分を取り囲むすべての扉が開け放たれるなら、眼前の人も私も無始無終の阿字本不生のなかであいまみえることになり、わたしがあなたになり、あなたがわたしになる。それは仁であり、悲であり、ゆえにその時空を大日如来と呼ぶ。弘法大師の『三教指帰』に以下のような有名なくだりがある。（以下、筑摩書房『弘法大師空海全集第六巻』より抜粋）。
虚亡隠士が答えて言う、「つくづくあなたを見ると、あなたは世間のふつうの人と違っている。頭を見ると一本の毛もない。体を見ると多くの持物をもっている。あなたはどの州、どの県の人で、誰の子で、誰の弟子ですか？」
それを聞いて仮名乞児は大笑してこういう、「迷いの三界（欲界・色界・無色界）に家はない。地獄・餓鬼・畜生・阿修羅・人・天の六道の固定した所に私は居ない。六道に輪廻する者はある時には天を国とし、またある時は地獄を家とする。或いはあなたの妻になり子になり、またあなたの父にも母にもなる。ある時は魔王を師とし、ある時は異教徒を友とする。餓鬼や禽獣はみな私とあなたの妻であり子であった。始めより今に至るまでに切れ目はなく、今から始めまで固定した在り方は無い。環のようにぐるぐると四生（胎生・卵生・湿生・化生）に生まれ変わっている。車輪のように轟々と音を立てて六道を巡っている。あなたの髪は雪のように白いけれども、必ずしも私の年長ではなく、私の鬢は黒々としているけれど、あなたの弟であるとは言えない。というのは、あなたと私は始めのない昔から、代わる代わる生まれ変わり死に代わって転変し、無常である。だから固定した州とか県とか親族などない。（以上、『三教指帰』より抜粋）
最終日の終了時間を５分過ぎてやってきた来訪者への加持を最後に、当山2026年サクラコンにおける出展は終了した。ブースに来た人々から何度となく「ここに居てくれて有り難う」と言っていただくことができたのは冥利に尽きることであった。こちらこそ有り難う。あなたに必要としていただくおかげで、シアトル高野山は存在することができるのだから。加持三昧の三日間、常に私の心にあったのは、けっして強者が弱者に手を差し伸べるというおごったものではなく、むしろ「同病相憐む」という感覚であった。永遠の時空を有為転変しながら旅する旅人どうしが出逢って別れるその刹那、心や体に傷を負っている相手には、その回復と少しでも健やかな旅路を願わずにはいられないという、ごく自然な感覚であった。さようなら、また無限の時間のどこかで！
(*写真は皆さんの撮影・掲載許可を得て掲載)
