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The Usui Family Gravestone is on the same
10 by 10 plot as the Usui memorial. It was erected in 1927 in a Tendai
Buddhist graveyard, which was moved to Saihoji graveyard in 1960-61 when
a subway line was extended near it. It contains some of the ashes
of Mikao Usui, his wife Sadako, his son Fuji, and his daughter Toshiko.
Note that there is another private shrine elsewhere in Tokyo dedicated to Mikao Usui and where his ashes were originally placed. It is the same shrine that has the original Usui Precepts and his famous portrait. |
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The front of the marker translates to "Usui Family's Tomb" implying that his anscestors are there as well. |
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The right side essentially had titles
for Usui and his wife, Sadako, either bestowed upon them by the temple
priest or possibly chosen before death. The length of a name/title can
suggests importance (or donations to the temple).
Mikao Usui's reads:
This was the best we could get, so it seems
to be more a string of adjectives to describe him. The "ko
ji" or layman denotes he was an ordinary man, as opposed to a priest,
monk, etc.
In small print beside this it reads:
Also on the right side, Usui's wife's read:"Te shin ing on ho jo ning dai shi" which again is a descriptive honoring her. It translates to "faithful warm honorable pure patient lay woman". The "dai shi" denotes a common woman (as opposed to nobility, etc.). (Note: I am told the true Japanese meaning is much more gracious but we wanted to give you an idea of the literal. ) Then in small text it reads: "In life - wife - died tenth month seventeenth day twenty-first year Showa (October 17, 1946)". |
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The back of the tombstone tells when it
was erected: "Built third month ninth day second
year Showa (March 9, 1927)" ... exactly one year after Usui's death.
It also says that the tombstone was erected by MikaoUsui's son, Fuji Usui. |
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On the left side of the tombstone, the
inscription tells of the passing of Toshiko Usui,
daughter of Mikao and Sadako. She died September 23, 1935 at the
age of 22 (21 in Western counting).
According to Arjava Petter in his book "Reiki Fire": "At the beginning of 1993, my wife Chetna interviewed one of Dr. Usui's relatives, the wife of his grandson, who told us that her mother-in-law, Dr. Usui's daughter, had left a clause in her will stating that his name should never be mentioned in her house." It is curious that Toshiko was not laid to rest with her husband's family. |
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It's interesting that no-one has paid
much attention to this additional marker on the family plot. It is
the grave stone of Fuji Usui,
Mikao Usui's son.
The heading reads
"Boshi"
or"Epitaph".
"Sei shin in ken
ho bu zan koji
"Truthful honorable
sincere warrior mountain layman
(Note: I am told the true Japanese meaning is much more gracious but we wanted to give you an idea of the literal. ) Again, as on his father's stone, the second line is a descriptive of the deceased. |
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