Rev

Rev. Dr Daigan Lee Matsunaga, founder and temple master of the Reno Buddhist Church passed away Friday, February 25, 2010 in Sapporo Japan. Dr Matsunagawas born June 22, 1941 and raised in the Eikyoji Buddhist Temple in Fukagawa-shi, Hokkaida Japan. After ordination and Buddhist theological training, he came to the University of Southern California Theology School on a scholarship for further study. He received an M.A. and a Ph.D at the Claremont Graduate University. Appointed as a professor at California State University Northridge, he taught Japanese cultural history and Buddhism for over 13 years. He was called back to Tokyo to establish the International Buddhist Study Center at the Tokyo Honganji by the Supreme Primate of the Jodo Shinshu church and was its current director. At the same time he was the temple master of Eikyoji on Hokkaido, which he succeeded to upon the death of his father. He also held a position of a visiting professorship at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom where he lectured on Budddhism for a dozen years. He and his wife, Alicia Orloff- Matsunaga founded the Reno Buddhist Church in 1989. Alicia preceeded Dr Matsunaga in death in 1998. Dr Matsunaga's current wife, Akemi, lives on Hokkaido, in Fukagawa-shi Japan.

Founders of Reno Buddhist Church Eikyoji Institute of America (a.k.a.)
Rev. Dr. Alicia Orloff Matsunaga (1932~1998) A native of Livermore California, who received B.A. degree from the University of California, and M.A. from the University of Redlands, theological training in Kyoto, Japan and a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. She taught nine years of Buddhism and Oriental culture at UCLA and then was summoned back to Japan to become the Bomori or Vice Pastor of the Eikyoji and worked over a decade to further develop the temple. In 1989 she founded the Reno Buddhist Church with her husband and planted a seed of Buddhism in Nevada. Her first book THE BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY OF ASSIMILATION was awarded the NHK (Japanese National Broadcasting) award. Together with her husband she has written and translated over a dozen books, the most well known being THE FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE BUDDHISM Vol. I and II, which are nationally well known college text books.		Rev. Dr Daigan Lee Matsunaga, founder and temple master of the Reno Buddhist Church passed away Friday, February 25, 2010 in Sapporo Japan. Dr Matsunagawas born June 22, 1941 and raised in the Eikyoji Buddhist Temple in Fukagawa-shi, Hokkaida Japan. After ordination and Buddhist theological training, he came to the University of Southern California Theology School on a scholarship for further study. He received an M.A. and a Ph.D at the Claremont Graduate University. Appointed as a professor at California State University Northridge, he taught Japanese cultural history and Buddhism for over 13 years. He was called back to Tokyo to establish the International Buddhist Study Center at the Tokyo Honganji by the Supreme Primate of the Jodo Shinshu church and was its current director. At the same time he was the temple master of Eikyoji on Hokkaido, which he succeeded to upon the death of his father. He also held a position of a visiting professorship at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom where he lectured on Budddhism for a dozen years. He and his wife, Alicia Orloff- Matsunaga founded the Reno Buddhist Church in 1989. Alicia preceeded Dr Matsunaga in death in 1998. Dr Matsunaga's current wife, Akemi, lives on Hokkaido, in Fukagawa-shi Japan.