Japan 2011 - Hongwanji's Floating Cloud Pavilion

The Hongwanji came to Kyoto shortly after the Sengoku Period which unified Japan. The General Oda Nobunaga had come to terms with his enemies, but passes - leaving control of Japan to his no. 1 general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a man of common beginnings who could not become Shogun. Although the temple had begun as a mausoleum after the death of Shinran, the temple had moved extensively until this point. In the negotiated peace with the Imperial family's blessings, Toyotomi gave Hongwanji in 1584 a tract of land in Kyoto, probably to compensate for the Ishiyama location that eventually becomes Osaka Castle. The temple is complete in 1592 and Hideyoshi also donates works of arts and architectural features to the temple. Construction on Osaka Castle begins in 1593 and completed in 1597, after the passing of Hideyoshi.



Hideyoshi is also known as a tea enthusiast, oftentimes, consulting (and eventually disagreeing with) Sen Rikyu the founder of tea schools. Within the grounds of the Hongwanji, he had built the Floating Cloud Pavilion (Hiunkaku)


This is part of the National Historical Registry. Japan was a source of inspiration for such designers such as Frank Lloyd Wright and other Arts and Craftsman. In fact, if you go down and see La Brea Bakery at Downtown Disney, you will notice it has a familiar facade.

The Hiunkaku features two types of architecture, the angular lines of Chinese architecture popular in Kyoto and the softer curvy architecture of native Japan. It is considered as one of the three great pavilions of Kyoto, albeit most people cannot see this one. The other two are Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji.

Temple Anniversaries

2012 is the 30th Anniversary of our Hondo. We will be celebrating with a time capsule that was part of our 85th Anniversary commemoration. Please feel free to contribute anything about our temple and the people it was built for. It could be remembrances or actual journals, videos on DVD, photographs, etc. We will close the time capsule at this celebration and open it at our Centennial, which will take place 15 years later. Our hondo was dedicated in August 1982 after fires that destroyed the previous hondo.

This commemoration will coincide with Gardena hosting the 2012 Southern District Conference. I am looking for people to volunteer for the steering committee. One of the first things we need to do is to arrange for a location and select a theme.

The komon and sodanyaku hope that we can hire another minister who is a native English speaker. The board did approve establishing a Minister Scholarship Program that will help us with getting another minister in the future. The board has a few more procedures to approve before we can fully implement this.

In the meantime, we will start seeing guest ministers for the English sermons at least twice a month and the religious department will also be looking for lay speakers who can speak in English. We do have a volunteer who looks after Rev. Shindo and helps with pronunciation. If others can help please let me know.

We have received items in the suggestion box, and we are doing our best to respond to the needs.

Our October group to Japan will meet soon. Kintetsu is finalizing the preparations for the May group’s visit, and then we will be scheduling meetings for our tour. Please stay tuned. Anyone interested in traveling to Japan in October for the 750th Memorial Service for Shinran in Kyoto, please contact me.

In Gassho,