A few weeks ago, while cleaning my room, I came across a letter my father had sent me seventeen years ago, during the New Year season following the birth of our daughter. My father rarely wrote letters, but through his words I could feel his deep care and concern for the three of us and his sincere wish for our family’s happiness and our first child’s healthy growth.
This month, our daughter will graduate from high school and will begin a new chapter in September as a college student. As we mark this important milestone, I found myself reading my father’s letter once again. Doing so vividly brought back the joy my wife and I felt on the day our daughter was born, along with the many precious memories we have shared over the past seventeen years. I felt deep gratitude for our daughter’s healthy growth and for the countless smiles and the joy she has brought into our lives. And as I reflected on how my parents, living far away in Japan, have always continued to wish for our family’s happiness, my eyes naturally filled with tears.
I would like to share this letter from my father, which carries his heartfelt thoughts and wishes for our family:
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Happy New Year, Yushi and Mika-chan!
I imagine that this New Year, your fourth in the U.S. as husband and wife, has brought even greater hope and joy than ever before. After all, it was the first New Year you welcomed together as a family of three, blessed last summer with the gift of a precious new life.
You named this exceedingly precious new life “Kurumi.” Having rather forcefully exercised the special privilege of naming all three children born to your older brother’s family, I had secretly been waiting for the chance to claim naming rights for the child born from the love between the two of you as well. However, that hope was quickly and thoroughly crushed by you.
“This is our child, so we will choose the name ourselves,” you said. Your mother and I could only smile wryly and remark, “Just like a younger son – full of independence.”
And the name you chose was “Kurumi.” When I first heard it, feeling a little puzzled, I instinctively responded, “What?” It certainly sounded like a lovely name, but I wondered what hopes and wishes were contained in it.
Then the following morning, while chanting the Shoshinge, I came upon a certain passage and suddenly realized its meaning. “Ah, I see now – that was it all along. What a wonderful name, what a precious name. Namo Amida Butsu…” I found myself murmuring.
This realization came to me while reciting the twenty-first through the twenty-fourth verses of the Shoshinge, which read:
Shakyamuni Tathagata appeared in this world
Solely to teach the ocean-like Primal Vow of Amida.
We, an ocean of beings in an evil age of five defilements,
Should entrust ourselves to the Tathagata’s words of truth.
「応信如来如実言」—“Should entrust ourselves to the Tathagata’s words of truth.”
It was here that I found the meaning of the name “Kurumi” (来実). “The Tathagata’s words of truth”refer to the true teaching revealed by Shakyamuni Buddha – the teaching of the Nembutsu of the Primal Vow, through which Amida Buddha vowed never to abandon any living being.
I came to realize that the name “Kurumi” expresses the wisdom (light) and compassion (life) of Amida Buddha. In other words, it reflects the Primal Vow itself.
The name you chose was uniquely beautiful – both charming and deeply meaningful, filled with all the hopes and wishes you held as parents. I once again admire the thought and care you put into choosing that name.
Last October, the two of you returned to Japan with Kurumi, who was not yet three months old. Do you remember the closing words of the hyobyakumon, the aspiration I read during the Hatsumairi [infant presentation ceremony] on that occasion? They were:
“May the parents realize that planting the seed of the Dharma in their child and nurturing it is the great responsibility of mother and father. May they continually reflect upon themselves and hold the Jodo Shinshu teaching ever more deeply in their hearts as they raise this child of the Buddha.”
Now little Kurumi has been born into this rare human life and is surrounded by the love of you two. My deepest hope is that she will grow into someone who truly lives as a human being. And for that to happen, is it not essential that you, as her parents, first strive to live as true human beings yourselves?
Yushi, through immeasurable karmic causes and conditions, you were born into a Jodo Shinshu temple family. And through further karmic ties, you now serve as a BCA minister, sharing the joy of the Dharma with the Sangha members in the U.S. Mika-chan chose to walk beside you, fully aware of the life and responsibilities that come with your path. Living and raising a child in a foreign country can hardly be easy. And yet, you have the Nembutsu.
Our founder Shinran said, “Through the Nembutsu, one enters the great path of unobstructed freedom.” A life lived in the Nembutsu is itself a path that nothing can obstruct—a steady way of living in which one is neither broken by the waves of hardship nor carried away by moments of happiness. In this way, one walks an unshakable path, embodying what it truly means to live as a human being.
Please raise your precious child in a home filled with the fragrance of the Nembutsu. And may the name “Kurumi” become her very life and guiding presence as she grows. You are parents who are, in a sense, also “zero years old” alongside Kurumi. You all began this journey together from the same starting point. Please remember that there are grandparents – your parents – living far away in Japan who continue to send you endless encouragement and love.
Once again, Happy New Year!
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Rereading my father’s letter for the first time in seventeen years, what I am feeling once again is a deep sense of gratitude to all the members and Dharma friends of our temple community who have continued to watch over our family with unwavering warmth since my assignment to the Mountain View Buddhist Temple. Because of your presence, we have been able to bring our daughter this far. I would like to express my sincere thanks for each and every act of support we have received.
In Gassho,
Rev. Yushi Mukojima