Nakashima Foundation for Peace - New Hope Gazette-1985

Organization of "Foundation—Objects for Peace" and adoption of by-laws have been completed, thus providing the mechanism for solicitation and or receipt of funds.

The Altar or Altars for Peace will be constructed out of four-inch-thick slabs of walnut, 12 feet long and seven feet wide, joined side by side, wood that now has been sawed and which now is drying at the Thompson Mahogany Company yard in Northeast Philadelphia. It is hoped that the wood, which was sawed in January of last year (1984) will be sufficiently dry for work to begin on the first Altar by the summer of next year (1986).

The Foundation's title contains the words "Objects for Peace" rather than "Altars for Peace" because, as one supporter of the project said, "After you've completed the Altar, or several altars, our work for peace will not have been completed. There may, probably will, be other objects that the Foundation may wish to make or support."

Officers selected

Officers of the Foundation have been selected. George Nakashima is chairperson; Garnette Arledge of Princeton is vice chairperson; Mira Nakashima is secretary, and Rita Durrant of New Hope is treasurer.

A New Hope Postoffice box, No. 366, has been rented in the name of Foundation—Objects for Peace, and contributions may be sent there.

George Nakashima said: "We are seeking individual contributions of no more than ten dollars, or 25 hundred yen."

Asked what would happen if somebody sent in a contribution larger than $10, Nakashima said: "We are not encouraging larger contributions, because we want to include many people paying what they can afford rather than just a few people paying much more per person. "However, we will not refuse larger amounts."

List of Trustees

Trustees of the new Foundation are:
Nobel Laureate George Wald, Cambridge, Mass.; Eido Shimano Roshi, Dai Bosatsu Zendo, Livingstone Manor, N.Y.; Udar, secretary of the Shri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India; Father Martin Boler, Prior of Mt. Savior Monastery, Pine City, N.Y.; Karen Grey, Ph.D., Washington, D.C.; Stanley Frosh, Judge, Montgomery County, Maryland; Daphne Hawkes, Episcopal Priest, Princeton; Harvey Machaver, Director and Physician, Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York; Arthur Krosnick, Physician, Princeton; Toru Komoriya, New York and Japan; William Graves, Senior Editor, National Geographic Magazine, Washington; Sister Francesca, President, Holy Family College, Philadelphia; William T. deBary, Director, Society of Fellows, Columbia University, New York, and George Nakashima (listed on the letterhead simply as Woodworker), New Hope.

The letterhead also lists names of a small group known as "Activists'. They include Gamette Arledge, Rita Durrant, Sumiko Komoriya, Evelyn Krosnick, Claire Machaver, Charles Shaw and the Nakashima family (Marian and Kevin, in addition to George and Mira).

What started out as Nakashima's dream on one Altar for Peace, to be located, perhaps, at the United Nations, India or Japan, has now blossomed into a much more ambitious project. Suggestions from prominent world citizens now have called for two, three or more such altars—one to be placed in each of those places: the United Nations, Hiroshima, Pondicherry, India (where Nakashima spent part of his youth in the Hindu Ashram dedicated to Shri Aurobindo), Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and Santa Fe, New Mexico (where Nakashima built a Christian monastery).

"We have plenty of wood for several Altars," Nakashima said this week. "The decision we have to make is to determine what sites are best and which places would welcome such Altars."

An old walnut tree

The wood which is now drying after having been sawed a year ago last January comes from a 12-foot section of the trunk of a 125-foot-high walnut tree between 200 and 300 years old which was grown on a Long Island, N.Y., estate. A logger named Frank Koziowski spotted the tree, which was still alive but, according to Koziowski, "past its prime" and ready for a "new use." The estate owner agreed to sell after negotiations over the price. Nakashima heard of the tree, which he later described as "that perfect tree" about which he had dreamed and arranged to buy the trunk.

Nakashima had the trunk trucked to Philadelphia, where Scott Wineland, a sawyer from Chico, Cal., who specializes in walnut, was to saw the trunk lengthwise into 16 four-inch-thick slabs. Wineland didn't have a saw large enough for the job; so he had one made. He had the disassembled saw sent by motor freight and reassembled in Philadelphia.

Nakashima, who will be 80 years old next month, supervised the sawing. His son, Kevin, helped Wineland with the saw and daughter Mira photographed the operation for the project's records and for publication in The Gazette.

Reporting on his "dream" and in what form the altar should appear, he said, in his letters to friends: "The possibilities are many but ultimately narrows down to a unique concept. It (the wood) should be used with the fullest width possible and about four inches thick, two slabs at the widest to be matched to make trough heart-shaped triangle about fourteen feet wide and twelve feet long. The possibilities are to make the most expressive piece of furniture ever made...

"An Altar to Peace! Each step would be an adventure...

"A pilgrim shrine, a temple, a great half sphere rising out of the water, perhaps a hundred meters wide and fifty meters high, sheathed with fish-scale-like ceramic tiles in white and pale yellow to gold as a symbol in a stretch of water, to make a complete sphere. It might be on land; on the East River, or the San Francisco Bay, or the Tokyo Bay, or on the Ganges, somewhere where the sadhus (holy men) could pay homage to an ideal, an ideal to which they have dedicated their whole lives...

Owned by no one

There should be some place in the world, a shrine, owned by no one but dedicated to the Divine and Peace, A shrine just for people, mostly poor as the world is so constituted...

"Perhaps this is all a dream, but peace is a dream, a dream dreamt by an overwhelming mass of millions upon millions of people. It cannot be had with the halls of power, as ego begets ego until we have our final Armageddon."

As the project moves along, Nakashima said to me, "it should be a happy venture."

"Peace should be light and joyous. Many peace people, dedicated and valuable as they may be, are grim, morose. We should all be light-spirited. I expect to have fun doing this."

Nakashima reached into a drawer of a chest beside his desk, took out a small envelope and handed it to me.

"This is a blessing from the Mother," he said. On the front of the envelope was a small photo of an elderly woman. Inside was a tissue paper envelope containing dried flowers.

"This is from Mira, the Mother of the Ashram at Pondicherry. Inside are the dried petals of flowers which have been given to her by pilgrims and blessed by her as tokens of her love.

"I hope that when our Altar is built, or our Altars are built, each pilgrim will leave a flower. The petals of those flowers could be dried, put in envelopes and sold for a very small amount as perhaps the way to finance maintenance of the shrine, or shrines."

A large mailing list of those who would be likely to favor such a project has been compiled, but it remains open. Anybody who wants his or her name put on that mailing list, the Foundation's officers say, "has only to so request in a note to "Foundation—Objects for Peace" (or simply "Peace Altar") Box 366, New Hope, Pa. 18938.

On a recent visit to Japan, George Nakashima and his son, Kevin, climbed a mountain on Yaku Island to see and touch a great cedar tree that is 7,200 years old* A plaque was placed at the site, honoring the oldest person ever to climb the mountain to see the world's oldest tree. A leading Japanese magazine recorded the event, showing Kevin standing beside the tree, at left, and George em- bracing the ancient cedar.

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