The Seattle Buddhist Church (or Seattle Betsuin) at 1427 S Main Street was dedicated in October 1941, and replaced the original church building which was condemned for the development of the Yesler Terrace housing project. The disruption to the Japanese community from that project, and then the relocation of Japanese Americans into incarceration camps the following year destroyed the Japanese commercial district. The new church building served as the U.S. Maritime Commission office during the war, and was reopened as the Seattle Buddhist Church on August 4, 1946.
In April 1963, the Seattle Buddhist Church hosted the Seventh Annual Conference of the National Buddhist Women's Federation. Here, the Reverend Kenryu M. Kumata stands in front of the altar at Seattle Buddhist Church with officers of the Federation. They are identified as Mrs. Umeno Kumata, president; Mrs. H. Fukuda, executive secretary; Mrs. M. Yoneyama, secretary; Mrs. S. Fujii, treasurer; and Mrs. Y. Fujii, secretary.
Caption information source: "No kimonos, but ages still secret" by Takashi Wada, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 21, 1963, p. B3 Caption information source: Seattle Historical Sites, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, retrieved at https://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/HistoricalSite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=2147010508 Identifications and caption information are from captions by Seattle Post-Intelligencer staff written on the back of the photo.
