In the years before Rev. Masayuki Fukuma became a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist minister, and before he ever imagined he would one day serve at a temple in the United States, he fell in love with the George Lucas film, “American Graffiti.” It captivated him so much that he has seen the movie seven times, and developed a lifelong interest in older American cars. While living in Japan, he bought a 1963 Volkswagen Bus and had it restored.

“After seeing American Graffiti, I always wanted to drive in the United States, so now I’m having a great time!” Rev. Fukuma said recently in an interview conducted with translation assistance by Hisato Miki.

One of the first things Rev. Fukuma did after arriving in Tacoma at the end of January was to study for — and pass — the test for his Washington State driver’s license. Thanks to help from many Temple members, particularly Frank Kawasaki, Rev. Fukuma is finding his way around the area, and now takes the Temple car —a ‘91 Oldsmobile Regency — out for errands and to carry out his official duties as the new minister of the Tacoma Buddhist Temple. Rev. Fukuma returned to Japan at the end of March to bring his wife Megumi and son Kei to Tacoma. Temple members will be able to meet and welcome them during the Hanamatsuri potluck dinner April 6, following the 2 PM service.

Rev. Fukuma was born June 30, 1962, in Yamaguchi prefecture, the city of Hagi, Japan, where his father serves as the minister for the Fukuma family temple. Rev. Fukuma graduated from Ryukoku University in Kyoto, and spent 17 years as a high-school Japanese language teacher in Hagi. He met his wife Megumi, a bank teller, through a mutual friend, and they married Jan. 7, 1997.

“It was not an arranged marriage,” he said in response to a question from Mr. Miki. “I fell in love with her.”

Before the birth of their son Kei on Feb. 28, 2000, the couple liked to ski and go camping, activities which he says they would like to resume once their son is a little older. The family has pets that include two dogs, two cats and a ferret, which all will remain with Rev. Fukuma’s parents in Japan.

The meaning of the Japanese character for Kei is “knowledgeable in truth,” a wonderful name for the firstborn son in a long line of Buddhist ministers. Rev. Fukuma represents the16th generation of Jodo Shinshu ministers in his family, and the family temple in Hagi is more than 300 years old.

The main temple of the Fukuma family is in Hiroshima, he explained, with one branch of the family relocating to Hagi in the late 1600s to establish the temple there. When his father learned that Rev. Fukuma — his only son — had decided to leave his teaching career to become a minister, he was thrilled.

As a teacher, Rev. Fukuma said, his days, evenings and weekends were filled with classes and other school activities such as advising clubs and coaching athletic teams, giving him no time to help his father at the temple. And although now he’s thousands of miles away from the family temple, his father is “really delighted” that his son is serving as a minister.

He finds Tacoma and the Pacific Northwest to be beautiful, with its snow-covered mountains. He also is enjoying the climate and is happy that Tacoma is on the water, because Hagi is situated by the sea, and Rev. Fukuma said he wouldn’t want to live anywhere away from the sea. He also is enjoying getting to know our Temple and Sangha. There are several ways in which the functioning of the Tacoma Buddhist Temple differs from those in Japan, Rev. Fukuma said. While our Temple always has regular Sunday Dharma School and adult services, in Japan Sunday is a day for memorial and funeral services, and most temples don’t have a regular weekly service. However, for times such as Ohigan, temples in Japan will invite a special minister and have two services a day for three or four days.

Rev. Fukuma also observes that while probably people in Japan have more knowledge about Shin Buddhism, because they have more resources available to them, he finds that people here in the U.S., and especially at the Tacoma Temple, are more serious students of Buddhism because they really want to have it as a way of life. Jodo Shinshu is the largest Buddhist sect in present-day Japan, he said, followed by a number of other schools of Buddhism, Christianity, some Islam and a number of new religions that combine elements of Buddhism with other practices and beliefs.

Rev. Fukuma is enjoying his introduction to the United States, and has discovered that the American food he likes best is mashed potatoes. He loves movies of all kinds, and was particularly interested in the recent film Windtalkers, starring Nicholas Cage, which portrayed the Navajo Code talkers during World War II.

One place Rev. Fukuma hopes to visit during his time in the U.S. is Monument Valley, Arizona, made famous in many Western films and shown in scenes of Windtalkers. He also likes music and enjoys listening to jazz. Rev. Fukuma is receiving instruction and tutoring in English from several Temple volunteers, coordinated by Tom Hubbell.

“All I can say is please bear with me,” Rev. Fukuma said. “ I will still need to use a certain amount of Japanese from time to time because some things in Jodo Shinshu are hard to express in English, so please bear with me.”

When Rev. Fukuma returns to Tacoma with his family, he looks forward to taking them sightseeing, and especially to taking his son to visit parks, and the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.

“My son likes the animals and fishes,” he said, “and he will enjoy going to the park.”

In gassho,
Nancy Butterfield