Rev. Zuikei Taniguchi Is Remembered With Deep Love, Profound Gratitude, Heart

Those who knew Rev. Zuikei Taniguchi will always remember his smile — cheerful, warm and welcoming. 

His charismatic personality transcended generations and drew people from all walks of life like a magnet. He was a devoted family man and an icon at the Buddhist Temple of Alameda (BTOA), where he served as Resident Minister for 39 years.

On May 3, a large crowd of approximately 200 people gathered at the Buddhist Temple of Alameda to honor Rev. Taniguchi. Sangha members, friends, neighbors and family shared loving memories and personal anecdotes, collectively paying tribute to his legacy as a husband, father, grandfather, neighbor and longtime Kaikyoshi minister in the BCA.

BCA Minister Emeritus Rev. Taniguchi, 85, passed away on Jan. 14 of cancer in San Anselmo, California. In his 53-year career with the BCA, Rev. Taniguchi served as Resident Minister of the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, the Cleveland Buddhist Temple, the Buddhist Church of Oakland and the Buddhist Temple of Alameda. He also was the Supervising Minister of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church.

The celebration began with remembrances and heartfelt thoughts from those closest to Rev. Taniguchi — his widow, Rev. Dr. Shoyo Taniguchi, and his sons, Zuiryo and Zuiho Taniguchi. 

“People often asked what my father was like behind closed doors. He was the exact same charismatic, energetic person you saw every Sunday,” Zuiho Taniguchi said. “The part of being a reverend, however, that you didn’t get to see is being on call 24 hours a day. The phone would ring in the middle of the night, and he’d rush to Alameda Hospital or Highland Hospital (in Oakland) to perform ‘makuragyo,’ the bedside service.”

During a period when several temple members passed away in a short time, Zuiho Taniguchi asked his father if consoling grieving families and burying people he had known for decades took a toll on him. 

“He told me, ‘You live through the people you meet. You remember their values, the good they brought into this world and you share their stories, emulate their positive traits and continue to live that legacy of theirs,’” he said. “So, I want you to walk away today with this understanding that as much as my dad made an impact on your lives, you all made a tremendous impact on him. He took those experiences to mold this temple into what it is today.”

Rev. Dr. Shoko Taniguchi, Rev. Taniguchi’s wife of 50 years, spoke warmly about his personality and virtues, sharing that he truly loved being a minister and loved people. She added that he held a black belt in karate, was an excellent dancer, a sharp dresser, "very, very charming," and remarkably good-looking.

“I will miss him so much,” she said, pausing mid-sentence as her voice broke with emotion. “As his wife for 50 years of marriage, I will never forget him.”

Zuiryo Taniguchi, the older son of Rev. Taniguchi, noted that he had a front-row seat to his father’s many Dharma messages over the years, estimating he had heard about 1,000 of them. He shared two memories with the gathering. The first was from an interfaith service where his father was searching for the perfect words to say.

“There was this one passage, which he used to make me memorize," Zuiryo recalled. "It went something like this: ‘May I be peaceful, happy and well. May I be free from harm and grief. May I be free from hatred and greed. May I be free from jealousy and envy. May I have courage, understanding and determination. May I resolve my problems. May I overcome my failures. May I be successful.’"

Zuiryo explained that his father wanted to use the passage for the interfaith service, but also wanted it to be all-encompassing.

“The day of the service, he changed it to, ‘May all living beings be peaceful, happy and well. May they be free from harm and grief.’ By changing it from ‘I’ to ‘they,’ he was always putting others before himself. It was perfect. It resonated deeply across that congregation. It’s something that I look up to, and it’s something that I know can never be repeated.”

Zuiryo then shared a second passage his father loved toward the latter part of his life: “In moments of loneliness, gently close your eyes; behind your eyelids, a boundless world unfolds. In times of sadness, join your hands together in Gassho. In my heart, your light still glows.”

“I hope that he continues to burn in your hearts as he does in mine,” Zuiryo concluded. “Because that way, I know he will live on forever.”

Jeff and Amanda, who aren’t Sangha members but close friends of the Taniguchis and longtime next-door neighbors in San Anselmo, attended the gathering.

Rev. Dr. Shoko Taniguchi pointed Jeff and Amanda out to the audience, saying that they saved her life when she had a medical emergency at home. They called the fire department and police and she was taken to the emergency room. At the time, Rev. Taniguchi was battling cancer.

Rev. Dr. Shoko Taniguchi was discharged, but soon had another medical emergency. She underwent surgery and is successfully recovering. 

“Without Jeff and Amanda, I am not here today,” she said. “I want to thank Jeff and Amanda. He still comes to my assisted living and takes me to Tokyo Fish Market (in Berkeley) and Amanda cleans my house. They are not just neighbors, but friends, life-saving friends.”

Evelyn Nakano Glenn, who grew up in Alameda and whose parents and extended Nakano family were all longtime active members at the Alameda temple, was flanked by several family members during her remembrance. She expressed her family’s deepest condolences to Rev. Dr. Shoyo Taniguchi and the entire Taniguchi family on Rev. Taniguchi’s passing. 

“We were privileged to know Taniguchi Sensei, who taught us all so much about the Buddha-Dharma during his years as a minister of the Buddhist Temple of Alameda,” Glenn said. 

“Although my husband and I became Sangha members of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple, we attended many services and events at the Buddhist Temple of Alameda, including Obon and New Year’s celebrations,” she said. “Our family got to know and appreciate and admire Taniguchi Sansei for his humor, kindness and knowledge of the Dharma, and, let’s face it, his sartorial style.

“It was a measure of how fondly we all felt about Taniguchi Sensei that our daughter Antonia and her partner Scott asked Taniguchi Sensei to preside at their wedding in concert with a rabbi,” Glenn said. “Happily, he accepted and he conducted a beautiful and memorable interfaith wedding ceremony. So, Gassho, Taniguchi Sensei. We all love and miss you.”

Hiko Shimamoto noted his relationship with Rev. Taniguchi dated back to 1964, when the minister first arrived from Japan — by ship. 

“It was just the beginning of a very wonderful relationship, one that means a lot to me,” Shimamoto said. 

“He was always concerned about other people,” he said. “He was concerned about the Sangha. It was never about him. I remember the time we were planning his retirement party. First of all, he didn’t want any fuss. Mostly, he didn’t want it to be at any fancy venue because he didn’t want people to have to pay money for his retirement party. He was such a compassionate person. I really admired him.

“I’m going to miss his big smile and his warm greetings,” Shimamoto said. “He would always smile at you and kind of wave. Sensei had a favorite saying. He said it many times. He would say, ‘I love you’ to a lot of people. Now, it’s our turn to say, ‘Sensei Taniguchi, we love you.’”

Steve Terusaki, the immediate past President of the BCA, noted that Rev. Taniguchi officiated his wedding at the Buddhist Church of Oakland. He recalled the energy and devotion Rev. Taniguchi brought to the Bay District Jr. YBA retreats at the San Luis Obispo Buddhist Church.

“He would gather the kids on Avila Beach and they would all crowd around him,” Terusaki said. “There was such love and such energy. His ability to have them understand the Buddha-Dharma was just a wonderful scene and I’ll truly miss that level of energy that he brought to youth. He had such a great ability to communicate the Shin Buddhist teachings.”

San Jose Betsuin Rinban Rev. Henry Adams, Chair of the BCA Ministers Association, recalled a memory of Rev. Taniguchi that he said really taught him a lot about how to serve as a minister. 

It was at a Bay District Jr. YBA retreat in San Luis Obispo, and the conversation turned to the ministers' choice of hotel.

“The Jr. YBA had generously provided us with a hotel and I remember in the evening, as we were finishing up dinner, we’re saying, ‘OK, let’s all go to the hotel,’” Rev. Adams said. “And Sensei said, ‘What hotel? I will sleep in the library in back of the Hondo at the San Luis Obispo Buddhist Church. I love it in here. There’s all these old books.’ And there he was, sleeping on this uncomfortable sofa, but he loved it, and the students loved him. This was right up until the year before he retired.

“Honestly, I was much closer in age to the Jr. YBA students than he was, but they really related and connected with him, and I saw that, and that has been such an inspiration to me of how to connect with Sangha members and with young people,” he said. “It’s really about being able to live with them, to be part of that experience that they’re having.”

Rev. Dr. Takashi Miyaji, Dean at the Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS), concluded the remembrances by recalling a visit at Rev. Taniguchi’s home a few days before he died. Rev. Dr. Miyaji went to the house to pick up a couple of Buddhist statues that Rev. Taniguchi wanted to donate to the IBS.

“It seemed like business as usual,” Rev. Dr. Miyaji said. “He was ‘genki’ (well). Then five days later, I heard that he passed away and it was such a shock. I had to confirm it with a few different people. But it just shows you that he had this inner toughness that he didn’t really show or he didn’t really talk about. 

“He’s truly an inspiration,” he said. “I think one of the things that I learned is that the Nembutsu teaching is not something you could learn from in books. It’s not an academically understandable tradition. It is a lived tradition and that’s truly what Sensei was. If you want to have an inspiration or a role model of what to live up to, what to emulate, it’s Sensei.”