In 1965, he transferred to Williston High School in North Dakota, where he started his junior year. Taka chose the United States to be the destination of his journey. Today, in Shin Buddhism, the practice of apprenticeship for the priesthood has been replaced by universities and seminaries. The German guild system still maintains this practice. Even today, many Japanese tradesmen and entrepreneurs send children who are expected to take over the family business to be apprentices to some other tradesman or company for a number of years. There is an old saying in Japan, “If you love your child, send him or her away on a journey.” The medieval embodiment of this saying in both Europe and Japan was the knight errantry.
In accordance with this tradition, Taka, being the first son of the family, entered priesthood at the age of nine, which is the youngest age permitted, and started his training to be a full priest. It is the tradition of Shin Buddhism in Japan for one particular family to take care of a temple for generation after generation.
Takafumi (Taka) Hirose, the author of Shin Buddhism: An Introduction, was born in 1948 as a son of a Shin Buddhist priest in a small village in central Japan.
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