Sarah Spaid Ishida wrote a report on ‘The Making of an American Shinto Community’ as an MA thesis for the University of Florida in 2008. It gives an interesting and detailed overview of developments at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine and the shrines in Hawaii. As such it should be the default reading material not only for anyone interested in Shinto in the US, but also for anyone concerned at all with its international dimension.
http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0021551/spaidishida_s.pdf
There’s a lot of interesting information about practice at the Tsubaki shrine, as well as the outreach programmes and reasons why participants were drawn to Shinto. For myself the most surprising aspect related to the strong Unitarian links which facilitated the birth of the Tsubaki branch shrine in America. Since I’ve been following sermons of late by the open-minded Unitarian Universalists, I was delighted to learn of the significant role they played.
Reading of the thesis is recommended, but those looking for the official version of Tsubaki Grand Shrine history should check out the following link on the shrine’s website:
http://www.tsubakishrine.org/history/index.html
Rev. Barrish firing off an arrow at this year's Setsubun festival at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine
Professor Dougill, many congratulations on your wonderful blog: Green Shinto.
Just the quick note re: the Yuisyo / shrine history of Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America. May I say that the official version you mention is really very accurate and may I also report that I am basing my opinions on 25 years of committed daily involvement in contrast to a 15 minute interview.
So for those with interest in the history or operation of Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America may I strongly suggest contact with Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Mie Japan or the US Branch Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America.