Rev. Dr. David Matsumoto Honored at MVBT

Tributes Pour in for Retiring IBS President, BCA Minister, Scholar for Exceptional 35-Year Career

It was — from start to finish — a daylong lovefest for retiring Rev. Dr. David Matsumoto.

The June 15 event at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple was truly a happy occasion, with tributes, laughs, telling anecdotes, and a deep appreciation and acknowledgement of Rev. Dr. Matsumoto’s exceptional and brilliant 35-year career with the BCA and the Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS). 

Nearly 200 people came from near — the Bay Area and Northern California — and far — Japan, Hawaii, New York, Chicago and his native Minnesota — to honor him.

Rev. Dr. Matsumoto officially retired as IBS President on June 30. He was an esteemed IBS faculty member, educating and mentoring an entire generation of BCA ministers and IBS graduates. And he remains a popular and endearing figure to the IBS staff and Board of Trustees.

He was also the beloved and charismatic Kaikyoshi leader of the Buddhist Church of Stockton and the Berkeley Buddhist Temple, delivering Dharma messages with his distinctive and soothing deep voice. 

At Stockton, he and other devoted Sangha members created the temple’s taiko group, the Stockton Bukkyo Taiko, 34 years ago, long before taiko became mainstream. At the Berkeley temple, he presided over the temple’s centennial in 2011 and was instrumental in helping to found BLEND, which stands for Buddhists Living with Equity and Non-Discrimination. 

He’s considered one of the foremost contemporary scholars on Jodo Shinshu studies, and is known for writing about complex Shin Buddhist topics with clarity, lucidity, and perhaps most important, with making his scholarly writings and presentations accessible to a wider audience.

There were many nuggets of Buddhist wisdom that he shared with Sangha members over the years — “living a ‘Triple-A Life’  — awareness, authenticity, and appreciation” — and his popular saying, “Today is a wonderful day. Why? Because today is today.”

In the tribute service at the temple’s Hondo, the speakers described all the facets of Rev. Dr. Matsumoto’s personality — minister, leader, faculty member, scholar, attorney, husband, father, family member, close friend, roommate and colleague — as well as a true sci-fi and fantasy fan (“Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” the “Dune” movies, “Battleship Gallactica,” and “The Princess Bride”).

The speakers were: Rev. Dennis Shinseki, who recently retired as a Kaikyoshi minister in the BCA’s Coast District after 36 years; IBS Professor Emeritus Dr. Richard Payne; new IBS President Dr. Scott Mitchell; new IBS Dean Rev. Dr. Takashi Miyaji; Center for Buddhist Education (CBE) Director Rev. Jerry Hirano; and Ryukoku University Professor Rev. Mitsuya Dake. BCA Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada delivered the Dharma message. 

The luncheon program that followed was led by IBS Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Leroy Morishita and included presentations from BCA President Steven Terusaki, Stockton Buddhist Church President Debbie Nakade, Berkeley Buddhist Temple Sangha member Emiko Katsumoto and Dr. Morishita, with closing remarks from Rev. Dr. Matsumoto.

“Rev. Dr. David Matsumoto taught that Buddhism is many things,” said former BCA President Rick Stambul, a member of the IBS Board of Trustees and moderator for the tribute event. “It is a philosophy, a religion, a way of life, and more than that and above all else, he said Buddhism is a path. It is a lifelong journey of seeking and learning, of unrelenting introspection, of questioning.”

Rev. Shinseki described Rev. Dr. Matsumoto’s career with the BCA, which began in the early 1980s when he was a student at IBS and at the Hongwanji-ha in Kyoto, Japan. Rev. Dr. Matsumoto became an IBS faculty member in 1995, teaching courses on the “Introduction to Shin Buddhist Thought” and the works of Shinran Shonin. He was the IBS George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of Contemporary Asian Buddhist Studies, and served as Vice President of Academic Affairs, Director of the Center for Shin Buddhist Studies, and Director of the Shin Buddhist Studies certification program.

In 2016, Rev. Dr. Matsumoto became IBS President. And at the retirement event, he was officially named as IBS President Emeritus by the IBS Board of Trustees 

He received his Ph.D. from Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, and his master’s degrees from Ryukoku University and from IBS. Before his career with IBS and the BCA, he was an attorney, having received both his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. 

Rev. Dr. Matsumoto authored the English transition of “A Life of Awakening: the heart of the Shin Buddhist Path,” by his late mentor, Rev. Dr. Takamaro Shingaraki, who was a noted Jodo Shinshu scholar, professor and President of Ryukoku University. Rev. Dr. Matsumoto also translated “Bearer of the Light: the Life and Thought of Rennyo” by Jitsuen Kakehashi.

“Rev. Dr. Matsumoto is loved by his students, admired by the staff, and has become such a wonderful part of IBS and its legacy,” Rev. Shinseki said. 

Dr. Payne highlighted the academic accomplishments of Rev. Dr. Matsumoto.

“He undertook the incredibly difficult task of pursuing a doctorate at Ryukoku University, difficult in itself, but while maintaining his teaching and administrative responsibilities at IBS,” Dr. Payne said. “He may have clocked more frequent-flyer miles than anybody else I know.

“He wrote the narrative of the great Shinshu teacher, Takamaro Shigaraki, and like his mentor, Rev. David has worked to express the teachings of the Shin tradition in a way that makes them accessible and relevant for us in the present day, a goal that combines the academic and the ministerial,” Dr. Payne said. “As a scholar, as a mentor, as an administrator and as a colleague and a friend, Rev. Dr. David has been a key to the success of the IBS.”

Dr. Scott Mitchell began his tribute to Rev. Dr. Matsumoto by noting that he watched both “Dune: Part One” and “Dune: Part Two” when his wife and child were out of town for the weekend.

“The reason why I decided to do this was because of the better part of the last year or two, Rev. David won’t shut up about it,” Dr. Mitchell said. “He’s just been talking to me on and on. ‘Have you see the ‘Dune’ movies?’ ‘The ‘Dune’ movie is so good.’ ‘You should see the ‘Dune’ movie.’

“Strange way to begin my words of congratulations,” Dr. Mitchell said. “But for those of you who know Rev. Matsumoto, as well as we do, talking about ‘Dune’ is not out of character. I have many, many memories of talking with Rev. Matsumoto about ‘Battlestar Galactica.’ I have a very clear memory of driving back from a BCA National Council Meeting where we spent the entire time talking about the new ‘Star Wars’ movies and speculating on who all the characters were. I intend, if I do nothing else as the successor to President Matsumoto, to continue his tradition of starting every meeting by saying, ‘Please take out your cell phones and set them to stun.’

“Now, I don’t think this is at all irrelevant or unconnected to Rev. David’s deep appreciation of the Dharma and deep appreciation of the Jodo Shinshu teachings. Once, I remember hearing his response when somebody asked him why he became attracted to Jodo Shinshu. He said that Shinran Shonin was the most interesting man he’d ever met.

“This is a profound way of responding to that question,” Dr. Mitchell said. “I feel this is not the Dharma, but Shinran Shonin, someone who’s been gone literally for eight and a half centuries as the most interesting man that Rev. David has ever met. There’s something profound in that. 

“In my view, this appreciation for the fact that we can have a continuing relationship with people who are not actually here, a continuing living relationship with a person who is no longer present,” Dr. Mitchell continued. “That’s a profound way of approaching the teachings of Shinran, of approaching the teachings of Jodo Shinshu, and I think it’s not dissimilar to his appreciation for all things sci-fi and fantasy. That we can learn deep lessons from narratives, that narratives and myths and stories, in many ways, become a reality. If we continue to remember the teachings of Shinran, they still have relevance and meaning in our lives. If we continue to remember the immortal words of Yoda — “Do or do not. There is no try.’”

Rev. Dr. Miyaji, a graduate of IBS and now IBS Dean, spoke on behalf of the students.

“I would not be here if it wasn’t for Matsumoto Sensei,” he said. “His dedication to the teachings is really unmatched. I think what strikes me the most about Sensei is his patience. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him mad, have you? Maybe I’m not sitting in the right meetings. Every time I spoke with him, he was very calm and collected, and never lost his cool and would always address me and others with a very welcoming and calm demeanor. 

“And this is the same way when it comes to the studies of the teachings,” he continued. “Sensei was always calm and never said to me, ‘You need to study more’ and I always found that to be very encouraging. It always made me want to study harder and not let him down.

“I feel a deep sense of gratitude for his steadfast dedication to the spread of the Nembutsu teaching, and I think that’s his greatest gift to us who are following after him,” Rev. Dr. Miyaji said.

Rev. Hirano, whose close friendship with Rev. Dr. Matsumoto dates back to 1981 when they were both IBS students, said it was a “bittersweet feeling” to be speaking at the retirement event, and considered Rev. Dr. Matsumoto “the closest thing I have to a brother.”

He recalled the agonizing time when he and the late Rev. Russell Hamada asked Rev. Dr. Matsumoto about leaving the Kaikyoshi ministry to join the faculty staff at IBS. 

“I knew David loved being a Kaikyoshi, and he was minister of the Stockton Buddhist Temple,” Rev. Hirano said. “He always told me, ‘Boy, I was so glad that I decided to become a minister.’ So we knew it was going to be hard, but we said, ‘You’re the only person we can imagine who’s smart enough to teach Jodo Shinshu to the future students.’

“I told him, ‘Remember why we came to IBS? It was all because of Rev. (Harayoshi) Kusada (the late IBS Executive Director from 1968 to 1983) that we came here, and he nurtured us to do this.’ I said, ‘You’re the only one I can think of that can nurture future students, and I think it’s something Kusada Sensei would want you to do.’ So, luckily, you all know he decided to go to IBS, and he was commuting for a long time from Stockton to IBS every day. Sometimes, it would be almost a six-hour drive in traffic. You all know that he did more for IBS than any of us could ever imagine. So, David, I know Reverend Kusada would be extremely proud of what you’ve accomplished.”

Professor Dake, who was a classmate of Rev. Dr. Matsumoto, Bishop Rev. Harada and Rev. Dean Koyama at Ryukoku University, traveled from Japan for the retirement event, and said Rev. Dr. Matsumoto helped to deepen the ties between IBS and Ryukoku University. He said Rev. Dr. Matsumoto was so dedicated that he would recite the Nembutsu and Shinran Shonin’s words to memorize them when he rode his bicycle on the streets of Kyoto. 

Rev. Harada, who has known Rev. Dr. Matsumoto for the past 44 years, called him an exceptional student and witnessed it first hand. While studying in Japan, Rev. Harada said they both recorded the Shin Buddhist lectures on their Panasonic tape recorders. 

“But David went way beyond me in that he would transcribe the entire lecture (in classical Chinese), then look up all the words that he didn’t know, then translate the meaning of the lecture, which was probably a five- or six-hour undertaking just for that one class,” Rev. Harada said. 

“David was such a serious student of the Dharma that sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night and he couldn’t go back to sleep, so he would get up and read the ‘Kyōgyōshinshō’ (Shinran Shonin’s magnum opus) in Chinese. If I can’t sleep, I would get up and turn on the TV. The last thing I would do is read the ‘Kyōgyōshinshō.’”

Rev. Harada presented two slides in his Dharma talk about Rev. Dr. Matsumoto. The first slide was a quote from the Pure Land Master Shan-tao — “To study the Buddha’s Heart of Great Compassion.”

Rev. Harada said: “This is our focus, the core of our study in Shin Buddhism and David manifested this to the utmost. You don’t study just for academic knowledge. You don’t study for recognition as a scholar or as a minister. You study to come to understand, to know, to receive the Buddha’s heart of great compassion.”

The second slide quoted Shinran Shonin: “Always practice great compassion.”

Rev. Harada said: “Shinran Shonin is clearly stating that one should practice great compassion after one comes to understand, know and receive the Buddha’s heart in one’s heart and mind. How do we practice great compassion? I think that that is up to each individual to find a way in their own life to manifest, to practice, to share the heart of the Buddha.

“To me, I think these two passages reflect David’s life as a student, minister, professor and teacher of Shin Buddhism for IBS and for our greater BCA community,” Rev. Harada said. “One studies to learn the Buddha of great compassion, and then one has to put it into practice, to manifest, to share it.”

In closing, Rev. Harada said: “Many of you here today have also come to receive the Dharma over many years from Rev. David when he served at Stockton or at Berkeley. Many of you today also took his classes at IBS or you have listened to his talks at CBE seminars and events, or as a guest speaker at your own temple.

“Although Rev. David is retiring as President of IBS and as a BCA minister, I hope that he will continue to share the Dharma with us when he can, as we all need to study the Buddha’s heart of great compassion and, in turn, practice great compassion in our own life.”