:Mitsumyo Tottori

Tottori was born in Shizuoka, Japan on May 6, 1898. He studied at what is now Shuchiin University, and graduated in 1924.{{Cite journal|last=Nakamura|first=Kelli Y.|date=2017-11-07|title=Bishop Mitsumyo Tottori: Patriotism Through Buddhism During World War II|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/677033|journal=Hawaiian Journal of History|language=en|volume=51|pages=115–145|doi=10.1353/hjh.2017.0005|issn=2169-7639|hdl=10524/63033|s2cid=165993187|hdl-access=free}} He then studied at the Koyasan before being assigned a mission in Hawaii.

Tottori moved to Hawaii in 1925 and served at the Hawaii Shingon Mission in Honolulu. In 1927 he became the priest at the Komyoji Temple in Wailuku. He met and married Aiko Fujitani before returning to Oahu to serve at the Koshoji Temple in Haleiwa.

Tottori also regularly wrote for the Hawaii Mikkyo, a Buddhist publication. On December 7, 1941, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tottori was brought in for questioning. He was released a few days later, unlike many other Buddhist priests who were interned for the duration of World War II, because the articles that he wrote for the Hawaii Mikkyo and other publications advocated for the Americanization of Japanese immigrants in much the same way that Yemyo Imamura had.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/americansutrasto00will|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/americansutrasto00will/page/275 275]|quote=mitsumyo tottori.|title=American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War|last=Williams|first=Duncan Ryūken|date=2019-02-18|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674240858|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/20523|title=Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawaii: An Illustrated Guide|last1=Tanabe|first1=George J.|last2=Tanabe|first2=Willa Jane|date=2012|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|isbn=9780824837280|language=English}}

Throughout the war, Tottori held private services and wrote memorial tablets ({{Interlanguage link|Tōba|lt=|ja|板塔婆|WD=}}) for Japanese American soldiers who had died on the battlefield. He maintained a prayer book for them regardless of their own religious beliefs. He also gave them posthumous Buddhist names. After World War II, he conducted services for men who died in the Korean War.

In 1946, after World War II ended, Tottori returned to Honolulu and became the bishop of the Hawaii Shingon Mission. He started a temple pilgrimage called the Hichi Kasho Meguri. Pilgrims would travel to seven temples across Hawaii, including the Hawaii Shingon Mission, the McCully Shingon Mission, the Palolo Kannonji, and the Liliha Shingon Mission.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZBH52mvyHgC&q=mitsumyo+tottori&pg=PA137|title=Guardian of the Sea: Jizo in Hawai?i|last=Clark|first=John R. K.|date=2007|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=9780824831585|language=en}} He was also awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzbC7hYSC88C&q=mitsumyo+tottori+order+of+the+sacred+treasure&pg=PA17598|title=Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress|last=Congress|first=United States|date=1968|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}

Tottori died on January 6, 1976.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://sova.si.edu//record/NMAH.AC.0926 Archival collection held by the Smithsonian Institution]
• [https://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/departments/archives/mss/aja/Tottori.pdf Archival collection held by the University of Hawaii at Manoa]

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Category:1898 births

Category:1976 deaths

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tottori, Mitsumyo}}

Category:Japanese Buddhist missionaries

Category:People from Shizuoka Prefecture

Category:Japanese emigrants to the United States

Category:Religious leaders from Hawaii

Category:Hawaii people of Japanese descent