Kawaramachi Daikyokai in Kyoto (Image source: blogs.yahoo.co.jp/rhbrw346/)

Presenting some inside info that has trickled in the TR newsroom:

Tenri Cultural Institute of New York (TCI) has already held two benefit concerts to help raise funds for earthquake and tsunami victims on March 11 and 27.

TCI is slated to hold a total of six benefit concerts falling into two categories: those organized by TCI and performing arts directors and curators and those organized by artists who will be using the TCI performing arts space free of charge.

Proceeds of concerts organized by TCI will go to the relief fund set up by Church Headquarters while those organized by artists will be split among various organizations including the Red Cross.

Future concerts are scheduled for April 9, April 17, April 22, and May 7.

Tenri Japanese Language School of Hong Kong has been selling pork soup, yakisoba, takoyaki, and other foods in addition to Japanese-Chinese dictionaries to raise funds for disaster relief.

The language school also plans to hold a charity bazaar on April 2. Proceeds will go to the Red Cross.

As of March 18, Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in Taiwan collected roughly 500,000 Taiwan Dollars (or 16,965 USD) for disaster relief. The Taiwan Disaster Relief Hinokishin Corps had an emergency meeting on March 11 and decided to send two officers, one in late March and one in April to determine the feasibility of their wish to send a unit comprising at least 10 members for a span of 10 days to an affected region in the near future.

Finally, Rev. Yoshitaro Fukaya of Kawaramachi Daikyokai has announced the newly built followers dormitory (tsumesho) that had been under construction over the last year or so would not be immediately open to Kawaramachi followers as originally scheduled but will be used instead to accommodate 400 displaced victims of the Tohoku earthquake/tsunamis. In addition, the grand church in Kyoto also plans to free up 40 followers’ residential units to accommodate 40 displaced families.

Tags: 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, disaster relief, Disaster Relief Hinokishin Corps, Hong Kong, Kawaramachi, New York, Taiwan