THIS PAGE CONTAINS TRANSLATIONS OF HISTORICAL NEWS REPORTS REGARDING THE REV. JOSHU SASAKI & THE SO-CALLED "ZUIGANJI  AFFAIR"

STATEMENT BY TRANSLATOR:  

I wish to address several questions likely to be asked regarding the translations [found at the bottom of this page] and their background.

I originally was asked to translate several old Japanese language news reports regarding a financial embezzlement scandal many years ago surrounding the "Zuiganji" Buddhist Temple in Japan involving the diversion of government and temple funds, and the resulting prosecution, conviction and imprisonment by the Japanese authorities of the REV. JOSHU SASAKI, a noted Zen Buddhist priest now living in North America. That request was made to me by the Rev. Kobutsu Malone, a Zen priest and editor of a web page known as the "Sasaki Archive" where witness statements and other documentation are collected concerning reports of alleged sexual harassment of students by Rev. Sasaki stretching over several decades. The matter was first brought to the attention of the Zen community by Rev. Eshu Martin, a long time student of Rev. Sasaki. The earlier "Zuiganji" case had been brought up by alleged victims and other involved individuals in the sexual harassment matter and, it was felt, there were aspects of the older case and prosecution sufficiently reflecting upon the current allegations such that it would be proper to report on the older matter as background. A Japanese individual, I was told, who wished to be helpful to Rev. Malone's efforts had found the news reports via a simple microfilm search through a library in Japan. 

Upon review of the articles shown me, obtained from the public library in Japan, I agreed to provide such translations upon condition that I would stand neutral and impartial in attempting to convey their content. I have attempted to do so throughout.

Furthermore, several personal concerns I had at the start of the project were resolved to my satisfaction as follows:

(1) I was originally concerned that the case merely reflected someone's "youthful indiscretions", and that it thus would be best just to leave the matter alone. However, the reported material revealed that Rev. Sasaki was in his early to mid 40's at the time, already a high ranked priest of several decades experience, and further, the financial and de facto administrative head of the temple where the scandal arose and (based upon the court's subsequent conviction and imprisonment of Rev. Sasaki) a central figure in the alleged crimes committed. Further, the nature of the charges, centering on embezzlement of government funds and temple assets, was very serious. Reports of sexual scandal surrounding Rev. Sasaki, also contained in the news reports and seemingly admitted to by Rev. Sasaki in interviews with reporters, seemed sufficiently to foreshadow the current claims of improprieties such that they should be retold. 

(2) The news reports to be translated came from two separate newspapers, one a regional paper in northern Japan, and one (the Mainichi) a respected national newspaper. Although reporters' writing styles in the Japanese press often can seem to western eyes rather indirect in phrasing, and scanty in providing desired detail, the overall outline of the total story presented in the many articles, when coupled with the final conviction after trial in the criminal courts (in fact, two convictions and orders of imprisonment by two courts, as both the trial and appeals court found guilt and imposed a prison sentence, the appeals court by unanimous verdict of a three judge panel after conducting its own new trial on the facts in place of the lower court verdict) left me some confidence that the news reports had some general basis, especially given both courts' imposition of heavy penalties they were not obligated to impose by law. Rev. Sasaki was sentenced to 1 year in prison by the lower court, which sentence was superseded and shortened to 8 months in prison after the appeals trial, both significant sentences. 

(3) Although the case happened in the early 1950's, Rev. Sasaki has been for decades a most influential figure in the development of Zen Buddhism in the West. A history of Rev. Sasaki's time at Zuiganji temple (contained in The Temple of Aspiration: Zuiryu-ji, a One-Hundred Year History of the Hokkaido Dojo, by Matsumoto Tokuji), a book which describes the scandal although omitting many important details (such as the fact of Rev. Sasaki's conviction in the criminal courts and sentence to imprisonment), nonetheless implies that one factor in Rev. Sasaki's first coming to North America may have been the "cold wind" turned upon him in the Japanese Buddhist community in response to the scandal. If so, the story merits to be told as one important factor in the development of Zen in the West, as well as one trigger leading to anything for better or worse which followed. Rev. Sasaki is a figure of such importance and influence in the North American Zen world that his story impacts all of us, both Rinzai and Soto, and even throughout the wider Western Buddhist Sangha, not simply those directly within his Lineage. In such light, this is a piece of history and should be put on the record. 

(4) I had reservations because the case is "so old". Why report it now? However, the very inability to report it earlier must be attributed in large part to the failure to disclose this story by the principal figure involved, Rev. Sasaki, combined with the fact that either (i) nobody among the senior students around him knew or, perhaps more likely, (ii) people knew and kept it quiet and hidden from past, present and potential future students. In either case, it should have been told earlier as important information needed for informed consent by past, present and potential future students.

(5) I believe that potential students and those encountering a teacher have a right to consider such important information before placing their spiritual and psychological well-being in that teacher's hands. Students have a right to know. Would, for example, any of the women who encountered apparent harassment have been put on guard or, at least, reasonably and fully informed beforehand simply by knowing that the teacher was a former convicted felon who had been involved in alleged sexual scandals going back to his 40's? It appears that decades of reports of harassment were kept hidden or explained away by the teacher and the people around the teacher for years, and often the people making such claims or inquiries were termed "liars" or trouble makers. However, did inquirers and other students or potential students not have a right to know of allegations of questionable events seemingly stretching back even prior to this teacher's coming to America? I believe that Zen students have a right of "informed consent" when placing their lives and inner well-being, often at fragile times in their lives, in the hands of Zen teachers.

(6) My original assignment was simply to translate one or two documents describing the scandal and police interrogation of Rev. Sasaki, but which articles provided by themselves no information on the later trials and conviction. I did not feel it would be right to raise discussion of a mere interrogation and rumor of scandal from so many years ago without information on the final disposition of the case (a stance which led to some disagreement on the need to do so between myself and Rev. Kobutsu Malone). I felt that confirmation of the court case was required especially if, as people near Rev. Sasaki claimed, he had been merely "questioned" and sent home without charges. For that reason, I asked that prior translations by me be taken down from the "Sasaki Archive" pending that confirmation, and I proceeded (with the help of a very cooperative reference librarian here in Japan) to clarify the final court disposition of the case. Once proof of the conviction and sentencing were obtained, I felt it permissible to release the earlier articles now shown in context of the final conclusion of the case.

(7) I am merely the translator of language. I am not the police who arrested Rev. Sasaki, the prosecutor, the judges who convicted him, nor the newspaper reporters who wrote about the events, nor am I a person who caused the case in the first place. My role is limited to conveying, without understatement or exaggeration, the contents of reports containing descriptions of what they said and did. I fully expect that there will be a "shoot the messenger" reaction on the part of some to any unpleasing report. It may seem that I and others who are making the case known are somehow to blame for the case, but the fact is that we did not create the case.

(8) I take seriously Right Speech and my Vows regarding the Precepts concerning refraining from "gossip" and "criticizing others' faults". However, like the late Rev. Robert Aitken in his work to gather and publicize information regarding the long history of abuse by Rev. Eido Shimano, I believe that my obligations are also to potential or present students who have a right to know in order to prevent future harm, and to past students and possible victims of abuse who have a right to be consoled as past victims, which obligations allow and call for honest reporting and constructive discussion of facts. I believe in forgiveness and forgetting, but also believe that openness and honesty are required first. Instead, what seems to have occurred is several decades of effort to keep this story, as well as the many cases of alleged sexual harassment, hidden. That is the central factor in the long delay in discussing these events until now. It is very different from a case in which a person may have made a single mistake in their youth which was openly admitted, well known by the community of students and potential students, openly apologized for with amends openly made. In this case, right to the time these news reports were discovered, there have been high placed individuals around Rev. Sasaki who publicly have denied to anyone asking that the case happened at all. Even up to a few days ago (until shown the below proof of the conviction and sentencing), one of the senior Sangha officials near Rev. Sasaki was still insisting to me and others that (i) even he never knew the full details of the case despite so many years at Rev. Sasaki's side and (ii) even if so, as far as he knew, Rev. Sasaki was simply "called to the police station, questioned, and spent the night in a police cell. No prison that I've heard of. Maybe not even charges." Until these reports of the conviction were discovered, that was the story. That means that either (i) even the closest and highest people around Rev. Sasaki were in the dark on past history or (ii) worse, they knew but intentionally did not disclose or misrepresented such information to other current students and potential students who had a right to know, or who may even have enquired about rumors of these events only to be given incorrect and misleading information in return. 

For the above reasons, I agreed to undertake translation of the news reports contained on this page.

METHOD OF TRANSLATION:

Prior to my Ordination as a Soto Zen Priest I was (and I still remain) an Attorney-at-Law in the United States licensed in the District of Columbia and Florida. I have lived in Japan for 22 years. However, my principle work for the last 18 years has been translation of law related materials, including evidence to be presented to courts in Japan and the United States. Because people's lives are frequently at stake based on such evidence, an independent translator does not wish to "take sides" or advocate one position or possible interpretation supporting one view or the other. The point is, as closely as possible, to represent what is said complete with all possible interpretations, imperfections or potential ambiguities. One certainly does not wish to make a translation which, through "clarifying" the meaning of a sentence or "improving" the writing (such as by insisting on perfect grammar, pretty wording and a nice natural sound in the translation) thereby results in altering, adding to or "reading into" the original. This is especially true for the most sensitive or controversial portions of material. Sometimes grammar and wording must be used in an awkward or ungrammatical way because it is so in the original, and in order not to add to or repair the original, leaving it to the reader to interpret the content. Perhaps the prime example of this is the following very sensitive portion of the news reports in this matter [the "Fusu" referred to here is Rev. Sasaki, then the "Fusu", or chief financial officer, of the temple]:

The four women surrounding the Fusu are a widow in her 40’s who evacuated to Matsushima during the war, an Ikebana flower arrangement teacher in her 20’s, a Geisha from Sendai, and

 women [plural] in Tokyo, and with among these women there are two children to whom Sasaki Fusu gave a name [名前をつけた], and from a woman who is in Tokyo he received repeated

demands to give her money, but after this case came to light, the interchange with the woman in Tokyo seems to have been cut off. 

...

On the evening of the 9th, Sasaki Fusu made the following comments to a reporter who came to see him in the Fusu’s office at Zuiganji:

... With regard to the matter of women, this is my distress as a human being. ...

Of course, the above is open to some interpretation depending on what one wishes to read into it. On the one far extreme, it could be read to say that Rev. Sasaki's connection to these women was merely to study flower arrangement as a social group, and that he suggested a friendly nickname for two of their unrelated [to him] children, all of which caused him some distress. On the other hand, it could be read to imply more, including the fathering of children in one or more affairs and the demand for money by a woman who was later cut off. Whichever is the more likely meaning, as a translator I would not want to impose wording to "clarify" the writer's intention and lead to one meaning or the other. The result is often an overly literal tracking of the Japanese original, or a bending of grammar. For example, the expression "gave a name" [名前をつけた] was left alone, and not changed into something with additional information such as "gave his own family name" "bestowed a friendly nickname" "recognized paternity" "gave a first name" or the like. Further, because the grammar of the Japanese original was difficult to render precisely in English in order to indicate to whom, and with whom, of the group of women the children were born (one cannot have two children with four or more women) the Japanese construction [ この女性との間に ] was rendered by me with the technically ungrammatical but understandable "and with among these women there are two children to whom Sasaki Fusu gave a name". I ask the reader to please bear with the "unsmoothness" of some of the wording. It is all intentional in order to preserve neutrality on meaning.

For that reason, I would like to gently "wag my finger" at Prof. Harold Roth, apparently (I am told) a friend and long time student of Rev. Sasaki, and the Director of the "Contemplative Studies Initiative" at Brown University. In correspondence with me, Prof. Roth relayed some objections by another translator whom Prof. Roth commissioned, pointing out that some of my translations were not grammatical. As one example, I translated the phrases found in "The Temple of Aspiration" [刑事事件を起こした承周老師] and [老師は ... 刑事事件を起こしてしまわれる] as "Joshu Roshi who had caused a criminal case" and "Roshi ended up causing a criminal case." The verb okosu/起すmeans "to cause" or "give rise to", without much ambiguity (DICTIONARY LISTING). Even Prof's Roth's hired translator has admitted that the translation appears literally correct (that "keiji jiken wo okoshite shimawareru" is literally "ends up causing a criminal case"). Nonetheless, that translator (whose identity has not been revealed by Dr. Roth) objects that "cause a criminal case" is not an idiomatic English phrase and thus "nonsense". Thereupon, states Dr. Roth, the meaning of the original is better conveyed in a causative construction as follows: He "ended up causing a criminal incident [to be investigated]", or "he ended up in a criminal investigation" "Joshu Roshi due to his involvement in the criminal incident." 

One does not even need to be a Japanese translator to understand that "involved in" or "ended up in" are quite different from, and imply less responsibility and direct connection, than "to cause/okosu." One must simply bend over backwards to turn "okosu" into "was involved in."  Further, what is a "criminal incident"? One can see that by adding non-present words [caused the incident to be investigated], or changing "cause / give rise to" into "involvement in," or by turning a "criminal case" into a more lighthearted "criminal incident," Dr. Roth's version is softening the language beyond the scope of the words or adding information which converts the meaning by hook or by crook into an interpretation kinder to Rev. Sasaki. There is a great difference between translating in a neutral fashion presenting all reasonable meanings, versus changing the story to advocate a position, sometimes at a great stretch to the words presented. I can only guess at the reasons for wanting to translate so. I believe that it partly represents the inexperience of Dr. Roth's retained translator in law related translations because, while precise grammar, natural phrasing, smooth or pleasing style, or creative readings are welcome perhaps in translating a work of literature, they can change the meaning of a document meant for presentation in a court into something it does not clearly say. I am sure, however, that Dr. Roth and his translator have the best of intentions.

I also "wag my finger" at some folks who seem to wish all such matters to remain undiscussed, hidden, swept under a rug. The reason seems to be not so much whether the story is true or untrue, but simply that revealing the story is embarrassing to certain individuals in particular, the Zen world in general. This would include various Zen priests as well as internet sites, such as ZEN FORUM INTERNATIONAL, a place where serious, civil and honest discussion is impossible in the face of censorship and the habitual stifling of views and opinions on Zen and Buddhist Practice displeasing to the site managers, where administrators stand as "gatekeepers" attempting to defend an idealized image of Zen Practice, myth, hagiography and dogma from too close examination. Shame on them.

INFORMATION ON THE JAPANESE CRIMINAL TRIAL SYSTEM

 FINAL WORDS

Let us completely put aside this particular case involving Rev. Sasaki, any question of what happened in this matter, and speak in general terms about all the scandals and controversies which have appeared in the Zen and Buddhist world over the years. 

I do not demand perfection from any Zen Teacher. They are only people. But I do demand that they do what they can to avoid harm to others. Most (the vast vast majority of Zen Teachers I know) do just that. 

Sitting with the beautiful AND the ugly in this world ... finding that which simultaneously transcends and holds, breathes in and breathes out, "beautiful vs. ugly" ... is our Practice. 

Is it not the same when we find a certain ugliness amid the beautiful in Buddhism too? A naive student who demands ONLY beauty and goodness in the world ... even the Buddhist world ... one sidedly rejecting the sometimes distasteful or even criminal, may miss the Real Treasure that shines through all of it. That is so even as, in our Wisdom and Equanimity, we keep pulling the weeds we can and nurture the flowers we can, praise the good and punish the wrongdoer. All at Once, the Eye of Buddha holding all. 

If there are questions or comments, please write:  Jundo Cohen    jundotreeleaf[a]gmail.com

THE TRANSLATIONS:

NOTE: Copies of microfilm images for 30 individual documents were received from the Miyagi Prefectural Library. All are contained at the first links below. The articles translated by me were selected as representative, adding new or relevant information without redundancy. Other articles may be translated and added by me in the future. Documents in English and original Japanese should be viewable on screen below, or can be downloaded as PDF files. 

NOTE;  DOCUMENTS BEST VIEWED WITH CHROME or EXPLORER, SOME DIFFICULTY REPORTED WITH FIREFOX 

I - ORIGINALS OF ALL JAPANESE FILES

Zuiganji All Documents 01-05 ZIP

Zuiganji All Documents 06-10 ZIP

Zuiganji All Documents 11-15 ZIP

Zuiganji All Documents 16-20 ZIP 

Zuiganji All Documents 21-25 ZIP

Zuiganji All Documents 26-30 ZIP 

II - Article 5

SUMMARY: Details of interrogation of Sasaki Fusu, description of alleged embezzlement and financial improprieties, 

the chief police investigator quoted that portion of embezzled funds was used for a "pleasure/spending spree (遊興費) and ... as a gift/offering to/financial support for women"

 DOWNLOAD Zuiganji Article 5 PDF

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III - Article 8

SUMMARY: Interview with Sasaki Fusu, when asked about connection to women quoted as "That’s a matter of personal life, please let me keep that hidden within my own chest",

details of alleged embezzlement and financial improprieties, humorous story of Sasaki Fusu in the Geisha world.

DOWNLOAD Zuiganji Article 8 PDF

(scroll down with bar above to read)

IV - Article 21

SUMMARY: Details of alleged embezzlement and financial improprieties, police search of temple, 

police cited "Everything from accounting to outside commercial liaisons were in the sole hands of Sasaki Fusu, whereby the involved parties each knew only pieces of the facts of the improprieties", 

police cited also describing difficulty to "gather information related to women in the Geisha world/pleasure district [花柳界] among the ways that money was used by Sasaki Fusu",

description of women and children surrounding Sasaki Fusu, who is quoted "With regard to the matter of women, this is my distress as a human being"

DOWNLOAD Zuiganji Article 21 PDF

(scroll down with bar above to read)

V - Reports of Court Convictions and Sentencing

SUMMARY: Rev. Sasaki convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 8 months imprisonment after trial by appellate court, 

superseding original conviction and sentence to 1 year imprisonment by district court. Appellate court described as finding that 

a portion of the embezzled funds were used for a pleasure/spending spree [遊興費] in a way inappropriate for a religious figure/man of the cloth (宗教家).

DOWNLOAD Reports of Conviction and Sentencing PDF

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VI - Description of Zuiganji Affair in the Book "The Temple of Aspiration"

SUMMARY: Description of the career of Rev. Sasaki in Japan and the "Zuiganji Affair" in the 2009 book 

"The Temple of Aspiration: Zuiryu-ji, a One-Hundred Year History of the Hokkaido Dojo" by Tokuji Matsumoto

DOWNLOAD Temple of Aspiration - Japanese PDF

DOWNLOAD Temple of Aspiration - English PDF

(scroll down with bar above to read)

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