For Mother’s Day this year, I am posting a text on Mayuyama Junkichi’s mother. Mayuyama Miyo (1892-1955) was 22 when she gave birth to Junkichi. When she was 44, her husband Mayuyama Matsutarō died, and from then on she worked with Mayuyama Junkichi to carry on the family’s business.
 
 
“Mother was 18 when she married Father. She was one of the beauties of her hometown of Yatsuo when she married. She then went to Beijing, and after 10 years or so here and there, arrived in Tokyo. In other words, the Ginza district.
 
After moving to Kyobashi, Mother often visited Tsukiji Honganji Temple. One summer vacation, she took me along every day when she went to pray at Tsukiji Honganji. When the war started, Mother became a devout disciple at Honganji, where she was extremely diligent in her duties. At the time, Honganji collected charitable funds, and when she heard there were not enough beds for wounded soldiers, she worked hard to raise money. Mother went the rounds of her neighbors and acquaintances, asking for small donations from each, 10 yen, 20 yen. In 1943, after I was drafted I was assigned to an army company, and by chance ended up in the Hangzhou Army Hospital. Lying in my bed every day, even though I didn’t know if it is one paid for by the money my mother gathered, I was comforted by the thought that it was a bed made by my mother’s donations.
 
 
Mother is someone I loved and respected. I learned commerce from my father and learned the benevolence of the Buddha from my mother.”
   

 
  [ Mayuyama Junkichi, Kansha, In appreciation, Benridō, 1993, p. 76 ]

August 1935 Shanghai Art dealers with Mayuyama Miyo and Mayuyama Junkichi at age21　

Mayuyama Miyo (front row, left) at Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple, 1950s

St. Luke's International Hospital is pictured in the back left