| Omotesenke Domonkai Hawaii Honors PBA’s Sadō Sensei Marion Yasui at the 70th Anniversary of the Hawaii Chapter
Dear readers of the What's New,
It’s been an adventurous summer, from my Oregon trip to watch my niece’s high school graduation (Oregon was frigid at a cool 60 degrees), to daily text flurries with my mom as we avidly celebrated the daily action of the World Cup (¡viva España!), to enjoying the work with returning students and new during the PBA summer school program.
| A special opportunity this summer was the high wire act of helping to host the delegation of tea practitioners from the Omotesenke tea tradition, which included the Iemoto, or Grand Master, of the school, Sen Sōsa, Yūyūsai. He and his entourage had traveled to Oʻahu to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Hawaiʻi alumni branch of tea practitioners Omotesenke Domonkai Hawaiʻi, and in addition to luncheons, dinners, banquets, and kencha, or ceremonial tea offerings, including | | | a kencha on the Battleship Missouri in remembrance of those who lost their lives during World War II, a prayer for lasting peace, PBA tea sensei Marion Yasui, senior Kira Yamamoto, and alumni tea students Collin Hanney, Emma Ishida, and Kodi WuChang welcomed the Iemoto and his delegation to Sei Fu, PBA’s tea room, for a beautiful tea service. | | 
| Sei Fu, or “west wind,” the name gifted to the PBA tea room by the Iemoto, was the brainchild of Dr. Margaret Oda, one of PBA’s founders and the original chair of the capital fundraising effort that culminated in the construction of the PBA Weinberg Building. Dr. Oda was a longtime adherent of the Omotesenke tea school. The place of sadō in the PBA curriculum has | always been stewarded by our longtime volunteer teacher Sensei Marion Yasui, who began her work as an educator for PBA more than 15 years ago at the invitation of founding Head of School Pieper Toyama. PBA requires all students to take Beginning Sadō as an integral element of our education in Buddhist and peace values. PBA’s program has always been run by Yasui Sensei. She was recognized for her long service to PBA and the perpetuation of sadō in the Omotesenke tradition at the Commemorative Banquet held at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort. It was a pleasure seeing Yasui Sensei honored in this way, as it has been to be her colleague these 15 years. She is highly respected by the generations of her students, always attracting more than a few students for the advanced study of sadō that follows the introductory class. At the conclusion of the Commemorative Banquet, the Grand Master gifted me and other board members of the Omotosenke Domonkai Hawaii a tanzaku in his beautiful calligraphy with verse from a Tang dynasty poem – Their fragrance fills one’s robe.
I can’t be certain the Iemoto meant the particular tanzaku for me or if my receiving it was luck of the draw, but in the ancient way, I derive significance from the verses still. In my role as Head of School at PBA, each day I see the benefit for students of their immersion in our college preparatory, Buddhist, peace education environment that we speak of as “enlightened learning.” If they arrive divided, or troubled, or hyperactive, or distracted, or split a thousand ways by the split attention of our present moment, the students leave us with greater reservoirs of attention, compassion, energy, and skillfully applied intelligence.
| The Iemoto’s message that a “fragrance” of practice, hospitality, and mindfulness shapes character, that transformation occurs not through force but through the sustained, wholehearted participation in the PBA Sangha and through proximity to the dharma – or, in his case, through his continual engagement with tea and the beauty of the present moment – it is a profound message. | | I have long believed that the mindful practice and cultivation of aesthetic attention cultivates spirit. It is the fundamental belief of PBA that in learning to play taiko, however well, one learns to listen and practice interdependence. Similarly, with sadō, tea ceremony, one learns appreciation of beauty in the moment, how to host a guest with care and attention, and | | 
| how to receive hospitality with skillful gratitude. As we embark on our 23rd year as a small, inclusive, excellent high school teaching young people to practice peace in their communities, I express gratitude to have met with the Iemoto, and for Yasui Sensei’s wonderful years of service to our educational community. | Warmly,
Josh Hernandez Morse
Head of School | | PBA at the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin Bon Dance | | OFFICE HOURS
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM | | |
