If Tsuyoshi Hirosumi had been the first-born son in his family, he would be in Hiroshima, at the Buddhist temple his ancestors began about 700 years ago.
"In Japan, especially for our denomination, the elder son assumes the father's position when it is time," said Hirosumi, the 61-year-old spiritual leader of the Newport Higashi Honganji Temple. "I was born the third son of the temple, so I could go anywhere."
Since the 13th century, the family line has remained unbroken at the Saizen Temple, in Fukuyama City, within the Hiroshima district. And if no male child is born to a particular generation, a boy is adopted and charged with the responsibility of succeeding his father as senior priest of the temple.
The temple is about 70 miles from the city of Hiroshima, far enough to escape damage from the dropping of the atomic bomb during World War II. But attacks by American B-29 bombers did destroy the temple, which was rebuilt at the same location. Hirosumi's older brother now represents the 29th generation of his family there.
At age 24, Hirosumi chose a different path. He left Japan to bring the religious practices of his forebears to the United States, becoming one of three priests at the Higashi Honganji Temple in Los Angeles, a Jodo Shin Buddhist sect.
"Everything was a challenge for me. The language was the main problem, but it was also a challenge to teach where the main background was a Christian culture," he said, picking up a bracelet of meditation beads to illustrate his point.
"In Japan, people would never ask what these are. So many things we took for granted in Japan, I had to explain. I never had to do that before."
Hirosumi found himself ministering to Japanese Americans who were not raised with Buddhist traditions and practices. But the form of Buddhism he was teaching did not demand unflinching obedience to religious precepts, or years of rigorous meditation.
"In the Jodo Shin school, it is not necessary to do the hard training required by other schools. After Sakyamuni Buddha, the originator of Buddhism, died, the disciples all got together and they discussed what they had heard from the Buddha. One group decided they would follow exactly what the Buddha did. It's called the Theravada school.
"We belong to the Mahayana school, where it's not necessary to follow exactly what the Buddha did or practiced, but to follow the teaching. What he was seeking is the most important thing. 'Yana' means vehicle and 'maha' means large. In a large vehicle, there is room for everybody.
