As the Kohala Koboji Shingon Mission closes in on its centennial anniversary, the Kapa‘au congregation has taken steps to repair and preserve the historic campus.

The building complex—including the temple, community hall, priest’s cottage and community kitchen—dates to 1924. The historic temple on Hawai‘i Island has served the Kohala community with both church services and community events, including hosting the Aikido Dojo Club since 1995 and continuing traditional ceremonial events such as O-Bon and mochi making.

However, the ravages of termites and weather caused leaks and damage to roofs, walls and flooring for all of the buildings. Coupled with the inability to gather during the Covid-19 pandemic, the congregation was concerned with the ability to use the property for future generations.

The mission feared that without significant funding and immediate aid, the buildings would be lost.

A historic preservation grant from the Freeman Foundation in cooperation with Historic Hawai‘i Foundation has helped to stabilize and repair the temple, making it usable and safe for continuing church services, community gathering and educational events.

“The impact on the community is positively stimulating and greatly appreciated. To everyone’s relief, church members have not had to come regularly to the temple and empty buckets of rainwater due to the excessive roof and wall leaks, as well as having to navigate around the rotted deteriorated open flooring.” – Eugene Amar, Jr., Director of the Board, Kohala Koboji Shingon Mission

The weathered Shingon symbols (mon) on the front façade of the Kohala Koboji Mission were replaced, matching the original design. All photos courtesy Kohala Koboji Mission.

The project included termite tenting for all four buildings and repairs to the temple. The temple received a new roof, partials walls and floors, repairs to baseboards and moldings, underlying structural repairs, and flooring. The project also installed rain drips to direct water away from the problem areas. The connecting corridor to the community hall was also reroofed and side walls repaired. The final step will be to paint the entire building.

The preservation work was conducted under the guidance of historic architect Lorraine Minatoishi. The general contractor was Quality Builders. Kristina and Rikko Varjan provided project management.

The Mission said that the project has brought about renewed interest and commitment from both the church members and the public and has catalyzed support for additional projects such as interior painting and floor coverings.

“More members are coming to services now and are happy about the major repairs,” said Amar. “They are sharing their excitement and enthusiasm about the grant project with the larger Kohala community. The Historic Hawai‘i Foundation-Freeman Foundation grant has made all this possible after all these years.”

Amar said they are looking forward to resuming community gathering and events when pandemic-related closures ease. “In 2022 we had to cancel a popular community mochi pounding event,” he said. “Later this year we plan to invite the community for a temple blessing ceremony and mochi making.”

Photos below show the Mission before (top left) and after restoration.