Dear Centenarians,
During my recent trip to Nagoya, Japan, I had the opportunity to tour the historic Nagoya
Castle which was constructed in 1610.
This castle is important in the overall history of Japan, as it was built by the famous
feudal lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, the one who unified Japan through deft political and military maneuvering.
It was also built during a time when Christians in Japan were present among the Buddhists and Shintoists, in Nagoya and surrounding communities primarily to the south and east.
One historical account of the times says that the famed military general Oda Nobunaga granted a request by Christian foreigners to build a church, against the desires of local Buddhist priests.
Nobunaga’s reason for allowing this to take place was rather clever and quite logical: since Buddhism first came to Japan from a foreign land, these other foreigners with their strange religion ought to be given a chance to prove that their doctrine is valuable.
Here in the Little Tokyo community, there are seven houses of worship representing the Buddhist and Christian faiths all within blocks of each other. Using the parlance of today, we model interfaith and ecumenical relationships that other communities speak of and strive to attain.
While our beliefs and doctrines may differ from each other (and even within our respective traditions!), we strive to co-exist in ways that complement and support each other’s presence.
It is a model of religious community that has its roots in feudal Japan, and that is
Increasingly relevant in a time that is distinguished by its diversity and plurality in
within our community.
Grace and Peace,
Reverend Mark M. Nakagawa
