As a member of the Board of Directors of Tsubaki America who has met and talked with Reverend Yukitaka Yamamoto on several occasions, I could not but be interested in his "words for March" appearing in Japanese in the March issue of Tsubaki, a monthly newsletter published by the Tsubaki Grand Shrine.

The headline for the article reads: "By Consoling and Remembering Those who Died in the Medieval Period of Civil War, We Have Obtained Limitless Power and Wisdom." At the top of the page is a similar heading: "Consoling and Remembering Spirits of the Dead is the Way of Kami.

If you, like me, are a Christian who fought for America during World War II, you will find some of Reverend Yamamoto's statements strange and maybe unacceptable. But if you admire Reverend Yamamoto's active support of religious universalism as I do, you will certainly be interested in what he writes on the religious significance of rituals performed for consoling spirits of the dead. So I share with you my version of his "words for March:

"Comprehending the Grandeur of Consolation and Remembrance. At the time this shrine was being reconstructed, there were strange manifestations of spiritual power, courage, and wisdom. Just when we were virtually without capital resources, we received a fabulous grant of 300,000,000 yen. I can't but believe that this was due to receiving spiritual grace.

About 1300 years ago, back when our shrine was called the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of the Tokaido and had six attached temples, we had a staff of more than 400 Shinto and Buddhist priests. It was then known as a shrine where Emperor Shomu (701-756) had offered up a prayer. That was when provincial temples (kokubunji) were established throughout the country, and when our shrine was founded as a Provincial Shrine ranking just below the Ise Grand Shrine.

But then about 400 years ago, and because of warfare in Oda Nobunaga's (1534-1582) time, this shrine and all attached Buddhist temples were burned to the ground. The Yamamoto castle was then besieged and the current head of the Yamamoto family (the 86th) and his younger brother were killed, along with some 400 Shinto and Buddhist priests. After that, the heads of three military domains (the Kanbe, Kameyama, and komono) provided support for a general rebuilding of the shrine and its temple. Although a shadow of its former grandeur, the shrine was able to maintain its position as the "number one" shrine of Ise Province.

Then as a result of a 1932 request made by Inspector Oguri Of the Police Bureau, the head of the Imperial Household's Shrine Bureau, and Dr. Naoichi Miyaji, made an investigation of tutelary kami (shugoshin). As a result of that investigation, Sarutahiko no Okami was recognized as a tutelary kami and Tsubaki Grand Shrine was designated the central shrine for the worship of that kami.

Honored as the Main Shrine for the Worship of Sarutahiko no Okami. In accordance with orders handed down by the Shinto Bureau of the Imperial Household, a portion of the spirit of Sarutahiko no okami was enshrined --in March of 1935--at the Metropolitan Police Bureau and in 1938 our shrine was rated a Great National Shrine. But as a result of the War, development at that high level was terminated. And as a result of orders handed down by the General Headquarters of the Allied Occupation, that portion of the spirit enshrined at the Metropolitan Police Bureau was returned to the main Tsubaki Grand Shrine.

After April of 1955, 1 began my studies of the spiritual world while subjecting myself, daily, to ritual purification (misogi) [in the waterfall at the back of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine]. And it was then that I came to know that blockage to the spiritual world had been created by insufficient consolation of the Shinto and Buddhist priests who had bee killed 400 years ago, and we came up with the idea of developing a memorial service for the dead, one that paralleled our Consolation Rite (irei-sai). For 10 years both the memorial service and the Consolation Rite were held daily. But around 1965 the sites of the Shrine's ancient branch temples, and of the Dainichi Temple, had become the garbage dump for the town of Yamamoto.

The Building of the Kami Spirit Hall of the Gyoman-do for Memorial Services. Then the land on which the old Dainichi Temple had been located was loaned to the Shrine by the town's Self-Goverment Association. Part of the land had been used for an iris garden and another for the growing the rice offered to the kami (shinsen-den). So we were able to revive the rice-planting ceremony that had not been held for120 years. In the center of that particular piece of land was built a Sacred-Treasure Inari Shrine, and nearby we erected a Memorial Tower for quieting the souls of the more than 400 Shinto and Buddhist priests who had been killed at the time of the Oda wars. 

In 1968 came the grand project of rebuilding the Tsubaki Grand Shrine. It was like building something from nothing. Reconstruction was successfully completed in spite of having virtually no money. After that, an assembly hall (sanshu-den) was built and a kami shrine was placed on the second floor where souls of the dead were both consoled and remembered. At that kami shrine, along with the souls of those who had been killed in the Oda wars, we honored the souls of those who had given devoted service to the shrine's reconstruction as "kami spirits" (shinrei). After that we continued on with another big project, costing about 2 billion yen, that included the building of the Tsubaki America Shrine. Moreover the Tsubaki Grand Shrine itself was spruced up and more than130 chapters (hashira) established throughout Japan. All this has certainly been the marvelous doings of invisible kami brought about, I believe, by memorial services held for souls of the dead.

Response to the Noble Spirits that Founded the Nation. Just as it was in the rebuilding of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine, in rebuilding the nation the people, beginning with the Prime Minister, must show proper respect for the noble spirits (eirei) of Yasukuni (the spirits of those who, in their various capacities, gave their lives for the nation at different times). As this is done, the nation is lifted out of economic depression and our moral and ethical standards are raised. I believe too that this is linked to reviving the latent spirit of the Japanese individual and to bringing about general improvement in our way of life. we now have a government posture toward foreign affairs in which apologies are made, over and over, for our having become engaged in military aggression. But in education too it is only right that we should pay more attention to the honored ways of Japan, beginning with showing proper respect to those who have sacrificed their lives for the nation. Their peace makes our prosperity possible, [Translator's note: This paragraph was rephrased by Reverend Yamamoto for this translation.]

Thoughts about how developments of the present are rooted in the wrong ideas and actions of the past are surely marvelous manifestations of the spiritual power that flows from the reverence we pay to the honored souls of our founding fathers. We must realize that the bad conditions of today exist because those honored souls have not been satisfied [with the way we have been acting and thinking].

As for the future, if conditions do not continue to improve, the power of Japan will decline and the world will no longer trust us. The Pacific War was presented to the people as a defensive war that would console the soul-kami revered at the Yasukuni Shrine. Certainly by consoling and commemorating souls of the dead, and thereby achieving enlightenment from the spiritual world, we gain creative power that gives us marvelous strength, wisdom, and courage.

At the time the four Buddhist statues (originally the central objects of worship at the six ancient Buddhist temples attached to our Shrine) were deposited in the Kami-spirit Hall of the Gyoman-do, we honored there the souls of the Shinto and Buddhist priests [who had been killed in the sixteenth century] as kami. But then we included the souls of those, beginning with the deceased Konosuke Matsushita, who had made important contributions to the Shrine's Great Reconstruction. Since 1968 the souls of more than 250 persons have been honored [as soul-kamil at that shrine, including not only the souls of deceased shrine officials but the souls of persons who had, in their association with the shrine, exerted themselves in behalf of Japan and the world.

On the 11th bay of every month we continue to console and commemorate these souls of the dead by performing the Goma (fire ritual), reading from the wisdom Sutra, and offering up both a Great Purification and Celebratory Prayer.

In March of every year a Great Kami-soul Consoling Festival will be held [at the Kami-spirit Hall] when all Kami-souls enshrined will be worshipped. Twelve new kami-souls [were added during this last year].

What I have written here is meant to disclose the wonders of spiritual power."

Delmer M. Brown

Berkeley, California