Thank you
for your participation in 74th Annual NW District Convention!!
Keynote Speaker : Reverend Peter Hata
Rev. Peter Hata received Tokudo ordination in 2011 and, in 2012, received Kyoshi ordination. In the fall of 2012, he received Kaikyoshi status and was appointed resident minister of West Covina Buddhist Temple.
Rev. Peter is also a musician and is an original member of the jazz-fusion group Hiroshima, with whom he played guitar, toured the U.S.A and Japan, and recorded four albums in the 1970s and 80s. Later, he left the group to pursue the more traditional jazz styles, which led to his writing a book entitled, Speaking Jazz: The Natural Way to Jazz Improvisation. In 2006, he earned his Master of Music degree from Cal State LA and, upon graduating, was invited by the university’s music department to become a faculty member and has taught a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate music courses there. He also performs locally with his own jazz trio and has directed the Lotus and Bodhi Tree youth bands, and the Dharmatones adult choir at the temple.
In 2014, Rev. Peter was reassigned as staff minister at Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple - Los Angeles, beginning yet another new chapter of his life. He brings with him a wide variety of interests, including Buddhist chanting music and the dynamic interaction between Shin Buddhism and our American cultural and intellectual traditions.
Featured Presenters
Nobuko Miyamoto
Nobuko Miyamoto uses song, dance and theater to reclaim our minds, bodies, histories, and create solidarity across cultures. Originally a dancer on Broadway and in films, she found her own voice as an activist and singer in the Asian American Movement, co-creating the iconic album A Grain of Sand (1973). This talk shares how Rev. Masao Kodani offered her the social hall of Senshin Temple in LA, to teach dance, becoming the home of Great Leap, launching musicals, concerts, music videos, and new obon pieces such as "Mottainai" and "Bambutsu". In 2021, Nobuko released the album 120,000 Stories (Smithsonian Folkways) and memoir Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love and Revolution (University of California Press).
Koichi Mizushima
Koichi Mizushima graduated UC Davis in 1995, with a Bachelors Degree in Management Economics, and, over the years, has owned three Japanese restaurants. At the Sacramento Betsuin, he has re-established the Jr. YBA Program, co-taught 1st Grade Dharma school, become a Minister's Assistant, completed the Jodo Shinshu Correspondence Course, and has been Programs Director. He is currently BCA Youth Coordinator and is part of the BCA Center for Buddhist Education Staff.
Kim Stafford
Kim Stafford teaches and travels to raise the human spirit. He is the author of a dozen books, including Having Everything Right, and most recently, Singer Come from Afar. He is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, and he has taught writing at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, the Fishtrap Writers Gathering, a host of colleges and community centers in America, as well as internationally, in Mexico, Scotland, Italy, and Bhutan. He also served two years as Oregon’s ninth Poet Laureate.
Rev.Ko'e Umezu
Rev. Ko’e Umezu (pronouns she/her) was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended UC Davis and graduated with a double major, a BA in Communications and a BA in Studio Art. After moving back to LA in 2002 to pursue a career in storyboarding in the film and television industry, she has been freelancing as a storyboard artist. In 2019, Rev. Ko’e received her tokudo ordination in the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha tradition, at the Hongwan-ji in Kyoto, and was assigned as an assistant minister to Rev. Koho Takata at the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple in August 2020, focusing on young adult outreach.
Reverend Yuki Sugahara became the resident minister of the Oregon Buddhist Temple June 1, 2017. Rev. Yuki obtained M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Musashino Grad School and Hongwanji-ha Scholarly title Tokugo. He has been sharing Dharma messages daily with Morning Services and weekly with Sunday Services. One of Reverend Yuki's hobbies is playing the bass guitar. After graduating from the university he played in a rock band called Jelly Belly. He also teaches Ying Jow Pai (Eagle Claw School) Kung Fu to the children.
He will be sharing a Japanese Dharma message at the convention.