Rev. George Shibata Is Fondly Recalled for His ‘Quiet Virtue’

He Served 37 Years as Resident Minister of Reedley

Rev. George Eishin Shibata was fondly remembered as the beloved and longtime leader of the Reedley Buddhist Church — and for his soft-spoken, unassuming ways.

In his Dharma message, Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada specifically noted Rev. Shibata’s reserved demeanor. Indeed, Rev. Harada chose the Ingo or Buddhist honorary posthumous title of “Jo Toku-in” (静徳院) or “quiet virtue”  for Rev. Shibata.

The funeral service for Rev. Shibata, co-officiated by the BCA and the Buddhist Church of Stockton, was held on March 7. In a clear sign of support and respect, an estimated 50 former and current Reedley and Central California District members made the trip to Stockton — with some people traveling as far as Southern California.

In addition, a memorial service was held at the Reedley Buddhist Church for Rev. Shibata, on April 12, for members and Central California District members who weren’t able to attend the Stockton service. An estimated crowd of up to 100 people came to pay their respects and remember Rev. Shibata.

Rev. Shibata, who was affectionately known as “Reverend George,” passed away in Toyama, Japan, on Jan. 28, after a short illness with pneumonia. He was 87.

He was the eldest of 10 children of Rev. Tesshin and Mrs. Haruko Shibata, and was born in Fukuoka-ken on April 13, 1938. He and his mother arrived by ship from Japan to the United States on June 12, 1939, and it was on the ship that he took his first steps as a toddler. They would join his father, who was assigned to the White River Buddhist Temple in Auburn, Washington. 

The family would remain at White River until they were forcibly uprooted and sent to mass detention camps with more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. 

After the family’s release from camp, Rev. Tesshin Shibata was assigned to the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple in Ontario, Oregon, in September 1945, where he became the temple’s founding minister. The Shibatas endured many sacrifices in establishing the temple, including the fact that the large family lived in a one-bedroom home.

Rev. George Shibata went on to attend the University of Washington in Seattle from 1957-1963 and was on the university wrestling team. He returned to Japan to continue his education and received a bachelor’s degree from Ryukoku University in 1966 and a master’s degree in 1969. He continued his education in Japan by attending Hongwanji-Dendo-in and received the scholastic titles of Hongwanji Jokyo in 1969, Hongwanji Fukyoshi in 1969 and Hokyo in 1973. 

He returned to the United States to serve in the BCA. On Oct. 27, 1973, he married the love of his life, Yasuko Kawasaki, in Kyoto, Japan.

Rev. Shibata’s ministerial career with the BCA included: the Gardena Buddhist Church from 1970-73; Assistant Director of the BCA’s Bureau of Buddhist Education in 1974; and as Acting Director of the BCA’s Department of Buddhist Education from 1987-89. He also served as the Chairperson of the BCA Ministers’ Association from 1992-93.

But he is best known for his 37 years as the Resident Minister of the Reedley Buddhist Church in the Central California District. He served Reedley from 1974 until he retired in 2011. He also was the Supervising Minister of the Buddhist Church of Parlier and the Buddhist Church of Dinuba. 

After he retired, the Shibatas moved to Stockton, California, to be closer to his family, where they enjoyed family gatherings like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Rev. Shibata continued his hobbies of baseball card, stamp and coin collecting and also enjoyed golf with friends and occasional trips to local casinos with Yasuko and friends. 

In August 2020, the Shibatas moved to Toyama, Japan, to be reunited with Yasuko’s family.

In his remembrance, Rev. Brian Nagata, shared a lighthearted anecdote when Rev. Shibata was a ministerial student in Kyoto in the 1970s.

“About 10 to 15 years ago, I was in Kyoto having dinner with friends at a small restaurant in Gion called Hana Gion and Gion, as you may know, is famous for being where the geishas were.” Rev. Nagata said. 

The owner of the restaurant was an elderly woman who was a geisha — a photo of her when she was a young woman was on the restaurant’s wall. And BCA ministerial students would frequent Hana Gion in the 1970s.

“When the owner heard I was from the BCA, she asked me, ‘How is Shibata sensei doing?’ Even after 40 years, she specifically asked me how Reverend George was doing,” Rev. Nagata said. “She didn’t ask me about my uncle (Rev. Jim Yanagihara, who was studying at the time with Rev. Shibata) or any of the other ministers. Obviously, seemingly innocent George sensei must have made quite an impression for even after 40 years, she remembered him.

Rev. Nagata went on to point out his family’s “karmic connection” with the Shibatas. Rev. Nagata said his cousin, the late Becky Honda, selected Yasuko as Rev. Shibata’s spouse.

“At the time when Reverend George was studying in Kyoto, my cousin Becky and Rev. Blake Honda’s father, Craig, were also living in Kyoto,” Rev. Nagata said. “And Reverend George asked Becky to help him go over the prospective candidates (for marriage). I’m happy to say that Becky, upon meeting Yasuko, immediately selected Yasuko-san because of her beautiful smile and her poise, which we’ve all come to know and love through the years.

“Yasuko-san has always served as the spark in Reverend George’s ministry and his long life,” Rev. Nagata said. “I remember times when Reverend George and Yasuko-san would come over to our house on New Year’s and my mom and Yasuko would be sitting there, talking away, and George would be patiently sitting there with a small smile on his face. I think he was happiest when he was together with Yasuko-san. So, Shibata sensei, thank you for your many years of dedication to our Sangha and to my family, too.”

Vickie Nishida, the current Reedley Buddhist Church President, said Rev. Shibata arrived in Reedley in December 1974 after she graduated from Reedley High School — and mentioned an extraordinary act that Rev. Shibata did each and every year. 

“He was a very soft-spoken man and we always enjoyed it when we could get him to laugh or smile,” she said. “After I went away to college and returned to the Central Valley, Reverend George performed my marriage ceremony in 1980. 

“One of the kindest and most thoughtful actions he performed was that he would always send an anniversary card that would amazingly arrive on our anniversary date or on the day before,” said Nishida, her voice becoming a whisper, breaking with emotion. “I don’t know how he had such perfect timing. Speaking with other couples that he had married, we all shared the same experience.”

Nishida described Rev. Shibata’s list of things he loved — his coffee, cigars and golf. He had a weekly golf date with a Reedley member and enjoyed playing in tournaments. 

Rev. Shibata, she recalled, was a familiar figure in the Reedley church’s activities in all of those years. He joined the Dharma School students on the basketball court during the church’s youth week, shooting baskets and jumping rope. He led services among the pine trees at Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevada at the church’s Camp Keola every summer, and encouraged everyone on the morning walk to look for a stick to be used as a putter in the golf tournament in the afternoon. He conducted services at the church’s annual beach outing at Avila Beach and would accompany families to the annual snow trip in the Sierra Nevada.

Rev. Shibata loved talking about his alma mater, the University of Washington, in his Dharma messages on New Year’s Day and would comment about the UW football team, especially if they were in the Rose Bowl, Nishida recalled.

Nishida said her family stayed in touch with the Shibatas after they retired and moved to Stockton, and the Shibatas made it a point to visit with Nishida’s family on their annual summer trip to Lake Tahoe. 

In October 2025, 19 family members and friends — mostly current and former Reedley Buddhist Church members — spent a day with the Shibatas in Takaoka, Japan.

“We had a wonderful time visiting with them and took turns sitting with them,” she said. “Mrs. Shibata shared with us that Reverend George was tired that day because he hadn’t slept much the night before because he was so excited that we were all coming to visit. We all felt very lucky to have spent time with them on that visit. We will forever be grateful to him and Mrs. Shibata for their guidance, patience and thoughtfulness.”

In his Dharma message, Rev. Harada pointed out his family’s longtime connection with the Shibata family. Rev. Harada grew up in Ontario, Oregon, and his home temple is the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple.

He explained how he chose the Ingo for Rev. Shibata by drawing a parallel between Rev. Shibata’s quiet nature and this year’s silent “Walk for Peace,” a 2,300-mile trek by 19 Buddhist monks from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. to promote unity and compassion. 

“It was not a protest march,” Rev. Harada said. “It was a peace march. They walked mostly in silence, stopping along the way to greet people, to give people a sense of hope for peace. Their peace march grew with each day. Toward the end, there were literally thousands who came out to see them, to march with them, to feel a sense of peace from them …. People of all backgrounds and faiths came to see them from the Deep South that is primarily Christian. Christians came to be with the monks. They felt something from their silent presence. Their actions spoke louder than words.

“Maybe Reverend George Shibata’s quiet nature was not just his disposition or his personality,” Rev. Harada continued. “Maybe he knew something like those 19 monks who marched in silence. Maybe he felt that it was not necessary to say a lot of words, that words can sometimes be hollow, shallow and insincere. Words can sometimes even be hurtful and hateful. Maybe that was one reason why Reverend George was so quiet and a man of few words. Maybe Reverend George was being his truly honest self in his quiet silence. Maybe that was his dynamic message of the Dharma to others, not speaking the Dharma so much in words in trying to be eloquent as a speaker, but manifesting the Dharma through presence, through being in the here and now.

“As I pay my deepest respects to the late Reverend George Shibata and honor and thank him for his dedicated years of service to our Buddhist Churches of America, I am taught the virtue of silence, the virtue of tranquility, the virtue of manifesting the Dharma, not just through words, but by one’s presence and being.”

Rev. Harada concluded his Dharma message by quoting from “Listen” in “The Heart of the Buddha-Dharma,” the classic work by the late Rev. Kenryu Tsuji, the former Bishop:

Listen. Listen to the voice of the Dharma.

Listen to the birds, singing in the morning, the wind sighing in the boughs overhead, and the roar of the waves on the beach.

Listen to the rain on the roof and the snow falling on the fields.

The Dharma speaks to us through the sounds of the world —

forcefully and eloquently and beautifully.

It speaks of the unending change around us,

the immutable truth of interdependence,

and the peace in nature.

Do we have the ears to hear and listen … ?

Listen to the Nembutsu in the Hondo.

Listen to the noble silence of the Buddha.

Rev. Candice Shibata, the Resident Minister of the Buddhist Church of Stockton and the niece of Rev. George Shibata, spoke on behalf of the Shibata family in her words of appreciation. She went on to thank everyone who organized, participated and attended the service — and, in heartfelt, emotional comments, singled out the Reedley Buddhist Church and her auntie, Yasuko Shibata.

“I’d like to especially extend our sincere appreciation to the members of the Central California District, especially members of the Reedley Buddhist Church, who took great care of our aunt and uncle while they lived there,” she said. “Thank you for welcoming them into your homes and being a part of their extended family. 

“And, lastly, I would especially like to thank our Auntie Yasuko,” she said. “Although she could not be here today, I would still like to express our family’s heartfelt gratitude to Auntie Yasuko for being such a supportive partner to our uncle George, or as she would say, ‘Georgie.’

“She took such great care throughout his life, attending to the big details like making sure he ate well to the smallest of details like adjusting his coat or shirt so that it was just right,” she continued. “We truly appreciate and extend our love to Auntie Yasuko.”

Rev. Michael Endo, who officiated the service, offered his personal remembrance of Rev. Shibata and his impact and legacy.

“One of the common themes for Rev. Shibata today, as we’ve heard, was his quiet virtue as the Bishop mentioned in the Ingo that we issued to sensei,” Rev. Endo said. “But, in his quiet virtue, he had a very, very loud voice in sharing the Dharma that he loved so much, especially in Buddhist education. In the circle of Buddhist education, sensei was a staunch supporter of Dharma School throughout his life.”