ご縁: Goen ​“Fortuitous Encounters”

I am entitling this article, “goen” to congratulate Reverend Shodo Kobayashi for the recent honor he received to be Shodoshi, an officiating priest, on behalf of His Holiness Kisho Yagi, Chief Abbot of Zojoji Temple in central Tokyo, at the memorial service for Honen Shonin, who founded Jodo Shu (Pure Land) Buddhist Denomination of Japanese Buddhism in the year of 1175. This grand service is very traditional and is recognized as an intangible Japanese cultural asset. Its procession is like a historical picture scroll.

I first met Reverend Shodo Kobayashi at the University of Illinois Library when he was a student at the University in the fall 1973. I found his name in the Japanese Student Association directory and it just happened that his first name was the same as my brother’s name and he was a graduate from Keio University and Taisho University Graduate School — Keio University was the University my husband’s father graduated from and Taisho University was the school where my other brother was a student at that time. I felt a special connection with him and thus, I gave him a call and asked him if he was interested in meeting me. This is how our goen has started.

After returning to Japan, he started teaching at a Tokyo high school and working at his father’s temple, Myojoin, as Deputy Chief Priest for 20 years. And then, later, he became Chief Priest of Myojoin. Myojoin was founded in 1763 for enshrining the spirit of the 9th Shogun, Tokugawa Iyeshige, and it is one of the highly esteemed Jodo Shu temples.

He got married in 1979, and he and his wife, Chikako, visited us in Illinois as a part of their honeymoon. Since then, every time our family visits Japan, we meet them, and thus our friendship continued to flourish over the years. He and his wife have been supporters of Japan House since its inception in 1998 and he has helped host several meetings at his temple for Japan House supporters and friends in Japan.

He not only maintains his day-to-day temple activities and responsibilities, but he also serves as Director of Publications and Public Relations for Jodo Shu headquarters and also as the Chair of the Japan Buddhist Federation, an alliance of all Buddhist sects, denominations and schools in Japan. Furthermore, he is President of Shiba Gakuen Educational Institution overseeing Shiba Junior and Senior High Schools in Tokyo.

This auspicious memorial service for Honen Shonin was postponed from April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and was held on April 6, 2021 at Zojoji Temple, the Head Temple of Jodo Shu Buddhism in Tokyo. Over 500 priests and followers attended, fewer than expected taking in account safety measures during this pandemic.

One phone call started our friendship, and it has been kindling for nearly half of the century.

I feel very honored to know Reverend Kobayashi and am so thankful for having this goen with him and his family.

Once again, I, and Japan House, would like to send our heartfelt congratulations to Reverend Kobayashi for his recent honor.

Note: Goen means fortuitous encounters. Go at the beginning of en is an honorific suffix. En commonly translates as “meeting,” “encountering,” "chance,” "connectedness,” and “relationship.” We all have some kind of relationship with the things and with people around us which, according to the Buddhist belief system, are happening due to karmic connections from our previous lives, and we exist among these connections. This belief can be explained as “dependent co-arising” in English, and it can be elaborated as everything arising in dependence upon multiple causes and conditions; nothing exists as a singular, independent entity.