Blog Archive

Chozen-ji's Annual Zen Art Show and Sale was held November 3-5 this year, and featured art works by a new generation of artists training at Chozen-ji.

The world premiere of A Musical Journey for Concert Band: Songs from the Eddie Kamae Songbook, and Holomua Collective and Oahu Economic Development Board at Chozen-ji.

At the Dojo, we are enjoying a revival of the arts. The Chado (Way of Tea) and Kado (Way of Flower) have regular students. New students are training in Shodo (Way of Brush) and Todo (Way of Clay).

For three days in July, Daiko Matsuyama Osho, the deputy head priest of Taizo-in at Daihonzan Myoshin-ji, a Rinzai Zen headquarters temple in Kyoto, visited Chozen-ji with his family. While here, Matsuyama Osho joined us for zazen and okyo, sharing some of the commonalities and differences between how we train in Hawaii versus in Japan.

On July 1, Chozen-ji held a small groundbreaking ceremony at the property across the street. The ceremony capped off two years of fundraising and planning to build housing for longterm Dojo residents and teachers.

In December of last year, 13th generation master ceramicist Takashi Nakazato came to visit Chozen-ji for six weeks. Nakazato Sensei is world renowned as one of the last potters making traditional Karatsu-yaki, a distinct style of ceramics established in the 15th century in southern Japan.

Twenty-seven students and teachers participated in sesshin in early July, Li Nishimura shot 1,000 arrows in a single day, and the second iteration of Zen & Politics took place May to June featuring guest speakers Governor John Waihee, Congresswoman Jill Tokuda, City Councilwoman Andria Tupola, and Judge Karen Nakasone.

A new effort to collect Eddie Kamae’s songs into a curriculum for local schools launches at Chozen-ji, and the Dojo hosts two youth outreach programs in partnership with Punahou School and the Hawaii Technology Academy.

In early April, Chozen-ji hosted a group of local bodyworkers for an inaugural Zen & Bodywork training led by Geraldine Abergas and Donna Punzal.

As I write this, I am near the end of a three-week live-in training at Chozen-ji, a Zen temple in the back of  Kalihi Valley.  Chozen-ji sits in a manawa, a mountain of mana (chi, ki, vital energy).  Every morning and evening we did zazen.  We practiced Mui Tai Chi and the Hojo, an old sword form, and learned about breath, posture, and concentration.  I did Chado and Kendo several times and made bowls every day.

2023 is the Year of the Water Rabbit, a once in a 120 to 150-year energy phenomena. It  is extraordinarily unusual for a year to be uniformly “good” for the humans celebrating their birth  cycle, thus interrupting the usual ways in which the year’s energy equally enhances positive and faulty habits.

Chozen-ji's Winter Newsletter features a number of updates that reflect just how vibrant and busy the Dojo is today. Click the links below to read a shortened version of the teisho that Sayama Roshi gave to a packed Dai Sesshin in December that culminated in the ordination of four new priests.

At the opening tea which formally starts sesshin, I suggested that we consider sesshin not only as one long period of zazen but also as one long Kendo shiai, a 6-day continuous match which requires full concentration moment by moment. In sesshin, we are doing shiai with the forms, with pain and sleepiness, with each other, and with ourselves for 6 days.

Kyudo at Chozen-ji is beginning to re-blossom through the hard work of the teachers and students. This year was busy with rebuilding the azuchi by replacing the dirt, sifting in sawdust, and leveling to the correct angles. Great care was also taken to refinish the Kyudo dojo floor and paint the interior.

Our recent sesshin was well attended with 20+ folks coming together to train for the week. For four of the students, this sesshin culminated with an ordination after 3+ years of intensive training.

We have made significant progress on the buildings and grounds this year. We finally repaved the parking lot to get rid of all the potholes and be better suited to handle the heavy Kalihi Valley winter rains. Currently, we are in the process to finally replace the gate on Kalihi Street.

Chozen-ji held a special 50th Anniversary Art Show November 4-6 featuring displays of historic photographs and master artworks made at the Dojo over the years. With calligraphy, ceramics, books, and omamori sold online and in person, the Art Show was a big fundraising success.