Buddhist Churches of America

The Buddhist Churches of America or American Buddhist Church(es) (米国仏教団 or 米國佛教團, Beikoku Bukkyōdan^?) is the United States branch of the Nishi Honganji subsect of Jōdo Shinshū ("True Pure Land School") Buddhism. Jōdo Shinshū is also popularly known as "Shin Buddhism". The B.C.A. is one of several overseas kyōdan ("districts") belonging to the Nishi ("Western") Honganji. The other kyōdan are the Philippines, Hawaiʻi, Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temples of Canada, and Europe. Their headquarters is at 1710 Octavia Street, San Francisco, California, near San Francisco's Japantown. It is the second-oldest Buddhist organization in the United States.

The origins of the Buddhist Churches of America(BCA) or American Buddhist Churches(ABC) began with the arrival of Japanese immigrants to the American mainland during the late 1800s. Devout Shin Buddhists who had expressed concern over the lack of religious services, and the activities of Christian missionaries among the newly arrived immigrant population, petitioned the monshu (head abbot) of the Nishi Honganji to send priests to the United States. The first Jōdo Shinshū priests arrived in San Francisco in 1893, and the first American temple constructed in 1899. The priests' arrival in San Francisco was a source of concern to the Japanese consul to the U.S. who believed it would strain U.S.-Japan relations: for example, a hostile article by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on the arrival of the priests alleged that the priests' intent was to convert white Americans and proclaim that Buddhism was superior to Christianity. In the decades prior to World War II, the mainland American branch of the Nishi Honganji tradition was named the "Buddhist Missions of North America" (BMNA), and many temples were established throughout the West Coast of the United States, the first being in San Francisco, followed by temples in the Bay Area, the Central Valley, and Northern and Southern California. There were also temples established in the Northwest states, in Seattle, Washington and Oregon. Since the majority of early Japanese immigrants or issei ("First Generation") were farmers or laborers, many of these temples were built in then-rural, and segregated, areas such as Dinuba, Guadalupe, and Sacramento, California.

...
Wikipedia