One of the houses of worship lost in the August 2023 wildfires was the Lahaina Jodo Mission.
The congregation lost four of its members to the blaze. Their souls were remembered last month during a prayer service.
Maya Hara was at that event. She’s the executive director of the Jodo Mission. Her father, Gensho Hara, has served as the minister of the historic mission for the last 60 years.
The temple was built in 1912. After it was destroyed two years ago, the mission received an offer to rebuild from a noted architect in Japan.
The Conversation spoke to Hara on Wednesday afternoon about where things stand on the rebuilding effort and more.
Hara said that when the three-tiered Pagoda burned down in the wildfire, many of the urns were damaged. Since then, they have carefully reorganized the urns and put them in a storage unit on the temple grounds.
“We started the service by offering our prayers in front of the storage unit, and those who wanted to go inside could go and look in on the condition of the urn,” Hara said.
“So we started with a small service, and then we had a very small lantern ceremony out on the ocean. … We were able to memorialize our ancestors and then those who passed this past year, as well as celebrate those who lost their lives in the fire.”
She said that one of their most important pieces, a wooden Amida Buddha, was rescued from the burning temple by a nun.
“Actually, what's really amazing is that the Buddha was saved from a temple fire in 1968 by my mother when I was a baby, so she ran into the temple to save the Buddha,” Hara explained. “So it's been saved from two fires, and we were able to have them restored this year by the Japanese conservation team.”
After the wildfires destroyed Lahaina Jodo Mission, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban offered to help with rebuilding. He proposed a temple made out of waterproof and fireproof cardboard tubes.
Hara said different complications, including debris removal and proximity to the shoreline, have caused them to put the plan on hold for now.
“Right now, we're trying to secure a master plan architecture firm to help us come up with different ideas and do a feasibility study so that we can figure out what the sort of shoreline setback, flood zone setback, and understand the different environmental issues and all the sort of technical issues that go into rebuilding our temple grounds.”
Lahaina Community Obon Dance takes place on Saturday on the grounds of Lahaina Jodo Mission. The event will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will feature Lahaina vendors to help support the community.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 7, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
