Sumi Tanabe Breaks Barriers, Blazes Trails for Women

Pioneer’s Impact Is Felt at San Jose Betsuin — and Throughout the BCA

She’s called out ministers when she thinks they’re wrong, started programs to feed the homeless and blazed trails in leadership for women at her temple and the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA).

Though not even 5-feet-tall, Sumi Tanabe has been a commanding presence in everything she’s done, whether it’s singing in the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin choir, dancing at Obon or speaking at a board meeting.

Tanabe is unafraid to say what’s on her mind and is committed to helping the less fortunate and dedicated to serving her temple, the BCA and Shin Buddhism.

Tanabe was the first female president of the San Jose Betsuin and the first woman to serve as BCA vice president, a position she was elected to three times, the first when there were just a handful of women on the BCA National Council. 

Last year, Tanabe, 87, became just the fifth person and first woman to receive the BCA Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing someone dedicated to heartfelt service to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. She was presented the award at the BCA’s National Council Meeting in Sacramento.

Former BCA President Ken Tanimoto calls Tanabe “a living treasure of the BCA.

“I look upon Sumi as a fearless leader who you could not stop for voicing her opinion nor changing her mind if she felt right about,” Tanimoto said last year at a San Jose Betsuin birthday party honoring her. He said Tanabe “broke the glass ceiling for women in BCA leadership.”

In the 1990s, BCA wrestled with changing the bishop’s term from 10 years to two four-year terms. During the discussion, the minister’s association, citing their expertise, argued that only ministers should be on the selection committee.

“I was horrified as I listened,” Tanabe recalled. “Finally, I raised my hand and spoke something to the effect that if Shinran was here, he would be disappointed in listening to the ministers. He was always a supporter of equality. He viewed himself as a bumbling fool. He would never see himself as better than others.”

Tanabe made the motion to keep the bishop selection committee to remain made up of eight lay members and eight ministers. The motion was seconded and passed. That procedure remains in place today.

In addition to her terms as vice president and national board member, Tanabe was chair of the Wheel of Dharma advisory board, the first chair of the Nomination and Human Resources committees, and a member of the BCA Endowment Foundation board for more than 25 years. She also helped draft the organization’s sexual harassment policy.

Tanimoto said her greatest achievement was helping to develop the Center for Buddhist Education (CBE), along with Rev. Kodo Umezu. 

“I attended many BCA meetings in which she was the guiding force, with Rev. Umezu, in CBE’s evolution and development,” Tanimoto said. “And because of her work … and Rev. Umezu’s vision of teachings of the Buddha, CBE is helping the world with the gift of Shinran’s teachings.”

Tanabe’s activism stretches far beyond the BCA. For decades, she taught Dharma School in San Jose, sang in the Betsuin choir and served on its board of directors, including two stints as the temple president in the 1990s. 

She started a group to help members of the temple and community through compassionate action, the Sangha Support Committee. She is the San Jose Betsuin’s first woman Minister’s Assistant.

A retired manager for the West Valley-Mission Community College District, she was a leader in the local American Association of University Women, a longtime member of the board that managed the Fuji Towers, a senior citizen housing complex in San Jose Japantown that was begun and initially led by Betsuin members. 

For more than 30 years, she was a member of the committee that looks after the Japanese section of San Jose’s Oak Hill Cemetery. 

She also set an example for women in temple and BCA leadership.

Janice Doi, a former San Jose Betsuin president, said Tanabe is a “wonderful mentor and friend.” 

During Tanabe’s birthday party at the Betsuin, Rev. Etsuko Mikame said: “Sumi, we look forward to continuing to learn from your kindness and passion, and we hope to embody those qualities in all that we do alongside you."

Born in Long Beach, Tanabe is one of Sunato and Toshiye Taniguchi’s five children. During World War II, her family was incarcerated first in Jerome, Arkansas, then in Gila River, Arizona. Following the war, her family moved to Fowler, where she began attending Sunday School and was taught by BCA icon George Teraoka.

Tanabe considers Teraoka not only as her teacher, but as a mentor and friend. Teraoka encouraged her to become a Sunday School teacher.

“He taught me that I am never alone, that hate can be overcome by compassion, that I am wholeheartedly supported by Amida Buddha and that I can be like a lotus in the muddy waters,” she said in an August 2024 Wheel of Dharma article.

She and husband Art, who passed away in 2012, have three daughters and two grandchildren. Tanabe said she is grateful for her husband’s support in taking care of the family when she was at meetings and conferences.

In recent years, Tanabe has been slowed by a series of health problems. Last year, she began to use a walker and her powerful voice is now just a whisper. She continued to give Dharma talks until she retired as a Minister’s Assistant in June.

Tanabe said she suffers from arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, and more recently a new condition: Parkinson’s disease.

“That’s why my voice is so weak. It’s getting weaker all the time,” she told Sangha members during a recent Dharma talk. She noted she can no longer sing, one of her favorite activities.

Rather than dwell on that, she said it “makes me be more thankful and grateful for the things I can do, even though they’re small things. 

“I can spend time complaining about my condition, saying ‘Oh wow, why did this have to happen to me?’ but it’s a waste of time and energy to think that way,” she said. “It is what it is, it is life, it is reality. Sometimes we’re healthy, sometimes we’re not so healthy.”

Reflecting on her involvement in the BCA, Tanabe said some BCA presidents supported women and placed them in leadership positions. But she also said it was hard being one of the few women on the BCA National Council when she first joined in the 1990s.

Tanabe recalled some disparaging comments when she was walking up to be sworn in as vice president at a National Council Meeting.

“I heard one male delegate saying ‘What is she doing up there?’ He was not ready to have a female cabinet member. There may have been others who felt the same. Women can serve as secretary but not as a VP. One man told me that women should be in the kitchen, and he laughed and said he was kidding. But I knew he was not.”

She said she is encouraged to see more women become BCA leaders and was ecstatic when in 2024 Terri Omori became the first woman to serve as the BCA president.

“Finally!” Tanabe said. “Terri did a great job, but she will not be the only female to be president.  It may not happen in my life, but one day there will be a female Bishop of the BCA!”