Welcome Rev. Dr. Todd Tsuchiya, Guest Speaker for Gotan-E!

Welcome Rev. Todd!

UPDATE: Now that we were able to enjoy the Gotan-E service, we are happy to let you know that both of Rev. Dr. Tood Tsuchiya’s Dharma talks are available to watch online separately, or as part of the service:

The Buddhist Temple of San Diego welcomes Rev. Dr. Todd Tsuchiya as our special guest speaker for the upoming Gotan-E serivce. A silver lining to life under the shadow of Covid for us is that are able to invite Dharma speakers from around the United States. We hope that we can see Rev. Todd to San Diego for another event in the future.

Since we welcomed Rev. Blayne Higa from Hawaii by sharing some of his state’s information we wanted to do the same with Rev. Todd. Minnesota is on the mid-north border of the United States with Canada, and we share a border with Mexico, we welcome another resident of a border state! Minnesota is also known as “Star of the North” or as in its state motto, “L’Etoile du Nord.” The state flower is a beautiful orchid, with the common name, the pink-and-white lady’s slipper. The flower originally grew wild in the state, and is now so rare that it is illegal to pick. It reminds us of the lovely orchids famously brought to our Hanamatsuri service by the Morinaka family, whose matriarch passed away last month at the age of 103.

As you read Rev. Todd’s biography below, you will see many connections we have already. For example, for the previous eight years our resident minister was also a Rev. Dr. with a former career in dentistry. (Rev. Kenji Akahoshi retired in 2021.) And Rev. Todd is a founding member of his community’s Taiko troupe. He may be pleased to know that following our live service and his televised Dharma talk, our homegrown Taiko group is having a free workshop so others can learn Taiko and the way of the drum!

State Flower of Minnesota

The pink-and-white lady’s slipper (Cypripedium reginae) is a variant of the lady’s slipper family, which can appear in a variety of colors. A slow starter, it may take 15 or more years for the plant to produce its first flower. The plants are comparatively long-lived, with a lifespan of some 50 uears.

About Rev. Tsuchiya

Rev. Dr. Todd Tsuchiya is a Tokudo Minister’s Assistant for the Twin Cities Buddhist Association (TCBA) Sangha. He is a sansei (third generation Japanese-American), born and raised in Minneapolis, and a life-long member of the TCBA.

Like Kenji Sensei, a first career in dentistry. Rev. Todd studied Economics and Dentistry at University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where he received his DDS degree in 1987. He practiced dentistry in the Twin Cities area for 27 years at Bassett Creek Dental, retiring in 2017.

Rev. Todd received tokudo ordination in 2019 and graduated from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in 2020 with a Master of Divinity degree. Tsuchiya Sensei is a founding and current member of Kogen Taiko, where he both drums and plays the shinobue (transverse bamboo flute). Rev. Tsuchiya’s message will be pre-recorded.

 
 
BT SD