Ryusenji Soto Mission
In 1984, someone removed the symbolic carved stone basin
that was used by worshippers entering the Buddhist
temple at the Kawailoa camp.

Temple renews search
for stolen stone basin

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

Carved out of a giant boulder, it was a gift from Japanese plantation women and an expression of their Buddhist faith.

Since 1924, worshippers at the Ryusenji Soto Mission in the old sugar camp of Kawailoa on Oahu's North Shore used the stone basin to wash their hands and symbolically purify themselves before entering the Buddhist temple.

The Kawailoa camp -- between Haleiwa and Pupukea -- eventually closed and a new temple was built farther down Kamehameha Highway in Wahiawa in 1976. Church members had planned to move the basin to the new temple at some point. But in 1984, someone using heavy equipment loaded the giant stone basin with Japanese lettering onto a truck and its present whereabouts are unknown.

Fifteen years later, the Rev. Shugen Komagata and other church members are asking for help in locating the carved stone and returning it to the Wahiawa temple for the 95th anniversary of the founding of the mission.

"We don't really have things or mementos from the old church that were brought to the new church," said Lawrence Wakui, who is helping to publicize the effort to find the church artifact.

"Everybody thought it was the work of the plantation or the restoration of the temple," Komagata said. "Those people who still remained there at Kawailoa temple thought it was an official duty but nobody seems to know who took it."

Komagata remembers visiting the old temple grounds and finding out the basin was gone.

"I thought that was very sad and it was difficult to accept," Komagata said. "I thought another piece of history gone."

Komagata explained that some of the younger members of the congregation don't know about the history of the church or the struggles of their ancestors.

"For some young people, the question was, 'What rock?' " he said. "The young ones don't pay much attention to those things. Some people never heard of Kawailoa temple or Kawailoa."

Komagata said the former church does not exist any more and the road to what was a thriving community in Kawailoa of up to 500 homes is now fenced off since the closing of the sugar plantation.

"The idea of having to celebrate the 95th anniversary this year with this rock fountain would be really meaningful," he said.