We held our Hatsubon Service today, remembering those who passed before us and those in particular who passed since last year's obon. Families of those who passed in the last year were called individually to offer incense.
Rev. Umitani gave the Dharma Talk, focusing on the hatsu ("first") portion. The left side of the kanji character for hatsu represents clothes and the right side is a sword. To make clothes, one must first cut the cloth.