The Power of Place: Hakalau Jodo Mission’s Continuing Legacy
Celebrating 120 Years of a Community Gathering Place By Susan Forbes Hakalau Jodo Mission, located on Old Māmalahoa Highway in Hakalau, Hawai‘i Island, is the community’s gathering place. Supported by an HHF Preservation Grant, Hakalau Jodo Mission completed a five-year rehabilitation project in 2024, just in time for a milestone anniversary. Founded by Japanese plantation workers in 1904, the Hakalau Jodo Mission, of Japanese Buddhism’s Jōdo-shū sect, follows the Pure Land Teachings of Honen. The current Mission building, built and dedicated in 1936, stands near the cliffs overlooking Hawai‘i Island’s Hāmākua Coast on an acre of land provided by the Hakalau Plantation in Hakalau Upper Camp (aka Up Camp). PRESERVING A HISTORIC PLACE The Mission is significant for its association with historical events and is a good example of an East-West Buddhist temple built in Hawai‘i during the 1930s incorporating Renaissance, Mughal and Japanese elements. After being listed in the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places in 2018, the Mission secured funding from the Freeman Foundation in cooperation with Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, and embarked on what would become a five-year capital improvement project to safeguard its legacy for generations to come. The initiative aimed to address critical issues such as structural damage, water infiltration, and the deterioration of decorative elements. From repainting the social hall to replacing colored glass window panes, each accomplishment brought the congregation closer together as volunteers and professionals meticulously restored the temple, social hall, and parsonage. Today the water and termite damage have been repaired, the exterior façade restored, plywood panels replaced, and roofs fortified against the elements. A significant achievement was the replacement of 1970s jalousie windows along the breezeway between the parsonage and the temple. Inspired by the [...]