{"id":948,"date":"2009-12-08T12:46:48","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T12:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html"},"modified":"2009-12-08T12:46:48","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T12:46:48","slug":"buddha-of-the-week-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddha of the Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ellen Scordato<\/i><\/p>\n

On a recent visit to San Francisco, I visited the Japanese Tea Garden<\/a> and ran into this wonderful bronze buddha statue.
\"japanese<\/span> <\/p>\n

photo courtesy mark rifkin\/twi-ny.com<\/a><\/p>\n

There really was something that struck me about this statue at that moment. It was my first visit to SF, and I’d spent a pretty magical day w\/my husband in the very great Golden Gate Park<\/a>, which reminded me of Central Park,
\nNYC, only with a Pacific Ocean beach at one end and some bison in the
\nmiddle. And the Japanese Tea Garden. Right at that moment I felt a great sense of peace. Momentary, of course, and entirely dependent on impermanent causes and conditions.<\/p>\n

The garden has a history; it was built for a big exposition (like a world’s fair) in 1894. Signage in the garden stated (and the website repeats), “Makoto Hagiwara<\/a> designed the bulk of the garden and was officially
\nappointed caretaker in 1894 until the hysteria surrounding World War
\nII.” <\/p>\n

The “hysteria surrounding World War II” refers to the internment of Japanese Americans, including the Hagiwara family, in concentration camps in the American West. As the website goes on to say, “In the years to follow, many Hagiwara family treasures were liquidated from the gardens, but new additions were also made.”<\/p>\n

\"info<\/a><\/span>
photo courtesy mark rifkin\/twi-ny.com<\/a><\/p>\n

This buddha was one of them. <\/p>\n

Evidently, after Japan was defeated by the atomic bomb in World War II, a large American department store company bought this statue and donated it to the garden, whose longtime devoted caretakers, the Hagiwaras, had been sent to concentration camps by US authorities. Makoto Hagiwara, founder of the clan in America, is often credited as the inventor\/introducer of the fortune cookie. What a lot of history. <\/p>\n

Seeing the statue here and reading the plaque reminded me of how yes, we are in the present. It is always and only now, but the causes and conditions of this present moment are myriad and mysterious, resistant to our “make it make sense!” narratives and predictions.<\/p>\n

But still, worth looking at. Causes, conditions, bison, and bronzes alike. <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ellen Scordato On a recent visit to San Francisco, I visited the Japanese Tea Garden and ran into this wonderful bronze buddha statue. photo courtesy mark rifkin\/twi-ny.com There really was something that struck me about this statue at that moment. It was my first visit to SF, and I’d spent a pretty magical day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nBuddha of the Week - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buddha of the Week - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Ellen Scordato On a recent visit to San Francisco, I visited the Japanese Tea Garden and ran into this wonderful bronze buddha statue. photo courtesy mark rifkin\/twi-ny.com There really was something that struck me about this statue at that moment. It was my first visit to SF, and I’d spent a pretty magical day…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-08T12:46:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/japanese%20tea%20garden%20buddha%201.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen Scordato\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Buddha of the Week - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Buddha of the Week - One City","og_description":"by Ellen Scordato On a recent visit to San Francisco, I visited the Japanese Tea Garden and ran into this wonderful bronze buddha statue. photo courtesy mark rifkin\/twi-ny.com There really was something that struck me about this statue at that moment. It was my first visit to SF, and I’d spent a pretty magical day…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html","og_site_name":"One City","article_published_time":"2009-12-08T12:46:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/japanese%20tea%20garden%20buddha%201.JPG"}],"author":"Ellen Scordato","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html","name":"Buddha of the Week - One City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/japanese%20tea%20garden%20buddha%201.JPG","datePublished":"2009-12-08T12:46:48+00:00","dateModified":"2009-12-08T12:46:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/16a6c3d95425f08ee437c8d10bed860f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/japanese%20tea%20garden%20buddha%201.JPG","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/japanese%20tea%20garden%20buddha%201.JPG"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/12\/buddha-of-the-week-6.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Buddha of the Week"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/","name":"One City","description":"The Interdependence Project","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/16a6c3d95425f08ee437c8d10bed860f","name":"Ellen Scordato","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/99f\/99f34b7d288924ccb04e485c4c22e69dx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/99f\/99f34b7d288924ccb04e485c4c22e69dx96.jpg","caption":"Ellen Scordato"},"description":"Ellen Scordato\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s multi functions include being 1) chairperson of the board of the Interdependence Project; 2) the co-owner of The Stonesong Press, LLC [www.stonesong.com], a book producer of high-quality nonfiction bestsellers for the popular market; 3) a part-time faculty member of the English Language Studies department at the New School; and 4) long ago, the published author of four young adult nonfiction biographies. A graduate of Wellesley College,where she studied Classics and art history, she lives in Manhattan with her husband and cats.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/escordato"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}