August 12, 2026. Today, this reality has come to be.
On the right — our standard black-lacquered Shōtoku 58-26.
On the left — the same design, painted in white pearl.
One altar. Made for one family. Made from one email.
Right: standard black-lacquered Shōtoku 58-26. Left: the same design in white pearl — one of a kind.
“Can you do this?” — It began with a single email
Last year, an email arrived — from a customer waiting on a new home.
“I would like this black-lacquered altar, but in white pearl. Can Oubaitori.com do it?”
We answered: Yes. But please give us time. The craftsman has his schedule. The maker has its own. This is not ordinary work — the price will follow. Even the estimate will take time.
A new home. A new altar. One made only for this family. To stand at that turning point in someone’s life — the weight of it settled quietly on me.
We never met. Only the letters spoke.
This customer and I have never met. I don’t know their face. They don’t know mine. All they had of me was YouTube. All they had of me was the website.
And still, they chose us. Our exchange was mostly by writing — more letters than voice.
In each sentence, in each word, the heart shows. What you truly mean comes out in the letters. Through the letters, the trust was built. And when the time came, I said to the maker: Let’s begin.
An estimate is a serious matter
Today, “free estimate” is taken for granted. But is it really so?
An estimate is a serious matter. Truly, it should be paid for. It takes attention. It takes labor. Research. A careful calculation of what is possible, in what time.
To lift one order-made altar off a maker’s regular production line is not merely “twice the trouble.” It is far more than that.
Perhaps the world is changing. Perhaps things are, in small ways, becoming right again. In this age of gojoku — the five defilements — it may be time to become upright ourselves.
Morning Daimoku #1,127 — Because we are alive, life comes at us
This morning marks my 1,127th day of chanting 10,000 daimoku each morning. My aim is 100 million. I have passed 10 million — one tenth of the way. At 10 million, the ground finally settled. Since then, another million in three months. Another thirty days, and I approach 1,130.
You and I — we are living. And because we are living, life comes at us. That is exactly why the morning daimoku matters. To live this one day fully, in the shine of the life that is our own.
Before the Gohonzon enshrined in the zushi, we face forward and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Bloom your own way, at your very best. Bloom my own way, at my very best. Every day.
Let’s Daimoku.
🙏 From Yukihiro Shima — Oubaitori.com
Bloom your own way, at your very best.
Oubaitori.com — Japan’s specialist in Soka Gakkai Buddhist altars
44 years, one specialty (est. 1982). 17,113 Soka Gakkai Buddhist altars delivered to date. Japan’s No.1 in restoring Soka Gakkai altars, 1,500+ restored. Registered trademark: “Butsudan Revolution — Kokū Zushi.” We ship worldwide.
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