Shingon in the 21st Century

I don't know much about Shingon Buddhism, other than its history. If anyone reading this has some experience with Shingon, I would love to hear from you.

My understanding is that Shingon was established in Japan by Kukai (774-835) early in the 9th century. Many of the teachings and rituals of Shingon are not made public, but are passed orally from teacher to student. The center of Shingon Buddhism remains Koyasan, or Mount Koya, a monastery built by Kukai.

I bring this up because of an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin by Pat Gee that profiles the Shingon Shu Hawaii temple. The minister, the Rev. Reyn Yorio Tsuru, is making a special effort to reach out to young people and others in the community and get them interested in Shingon Buddhism. However, in order to survive, the Shingon Shu Hawaii congregation has had to sever ties with institutional Shingon in Japan.

Rev. Tsuru realized his temple's membership was aging, and if nothing was done to bring in young people the temple eventually would die. He initiated community outreach programs and translated sermons into English. Eventually he plans to phase out Japanese-language services altogether. He even takes the time to explain the rituals to people, to make them relevant.

Apparantly, such innovations are very un-Shingon, at least to the institution in Japan. With the approval of the congregation, the temple severed ties with Japanese Shingon headquarters in 2004.

Attaining independence from a system based on an aristocracy, "a rigid ranking system totally alien to anyone born in the United States," was the "biggest and probably the best change" for his church, he said.