Transcription
The Flores neighborhood Buddhist monk accused of sexually assaulting a follower
in Japan speaks: “She said she had fallen in love with me”
The case reopened a file for human trafficking against a temple in Flores neighborhood. At the seat, they do not rule out the possibility of a rival sect being behind.
Ryokyu Nakayama, at his Temple in Flores
When one steps through the double-leaf door of The Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Temple on Carabobo Avenue in Flores, the first thing that calls one’s attention is silence. There are people, there is movement around, but there is no noise. Some believers pile up chairs, others polish the floor; two of them arrange fruit on a table. At the back, the church, the altar, can be seen. In some room, there awaits Japanese priest Ryokyu Nakayama, who faces a brutal accusation: having sexually assaulted Cecilia Califano, a former faithful of the cult, during a pilgrimage to Japan in July 2017, an alleged crime in a hotel in Tokyo, on a Asahi beer spree. Califano lodged a criminal complaint, informed the Migration Office about the event: the case is filed with Court N°12.
Nakayama is willing to break the silence and speak with Infobae: This will be the first time he talks with the media after such charges were brought against him.
Paula Andrea Rodríguez and María Cecilia Mato, two followers, are waiting at the door of the temple. Both of them are Buddhist and persons of Nakayama’s full trust. For several years, they have been members of The Nichiren Shoshu Temple in Flores, the only Spanish-speaking temple in South America.
The temple gathers around 300 families, although, in the country, there are over one thousand followers of the cult, which was born on the hillside of Mount Fuji in Japan more than 750 years ago and arrived to Argentina in 1960.
The interview takes place in a small white room with bare walls, and an inner window pane through which the whole temple can be seen. Inside the room, there is nothing but a table and five chairs. On the temple’s upper floor, according to tradition, there live the priest and his family: he is married with two daughters. He was married at the time of the alleged sexual assault.
Nakayama, during the dialogue with Infobae
After some minutes, Ryokyu Nakayama shows up at the doorstep. His wife and daughters, aged 3 and 6, follow him, smiling. The postcard seems convincing. Nakayama is a 39-year-old man, moves gently, has a crew cut, and wears a grey kimono.
According to the charge filed by Califano, in July 2017, on the last day of a group pilgrimage to the Taiseki-ji Head Temple, in Japan, the monk accompanied her to buy some knives. When they were back in the hotel, in Shinagawa, he asked her to let him come into her room to, allegedly pretending to be drunk, sexually assault her, touching (sic), an event that did not involve any type of penetration.
Nakayama and Califano together with the group from the Flores Temple on their pilgrimage to Japan in 2017
“Up to now, we have had no chance to tell what really happened”, were Nakayama’s first words, immediately after his wife and daughters left the room.
Regarding the long time he took to reply, he said that it was the “escrache”* carried out at the temple’s door by the end of last month, when people sprayed the building’s facade with paint and posted signs with his photo and the word “abusador”, which prompted him to speak.
*a demonstration outside the house or workplace of a public figure to draw attention to their perceived crimes
Images of the “escrache” to Nakayama (Photo: Virginia Chaile)
The monk gave his version of events about that last night in Tokyo and, as the true motive of Califano’s accusation, he pointed to “unrequited love”, an argument similar to the one given by Juan Darthés with reference to the latter’s victim, Thelma Fardín.
According to the monk, she asked him to assist her in purchasing some kitchen knives and, on their last day in Tokyo, they went out together to buy them. He had asked her to bring other members with them –as it is not well looked upon that a priest, even less a married one, be alone with a female believer in such circumstances⎼ but she appeared just by herself at the lobby.
“She told me that the rest of the group had already left to dine out”, pointed out Nakayama. After buying the knives, he admits, they went to a restaurant, but he denies having had any alcoholic drinks, let alone getting drunk ⎼as Califano claims.
“I had not noticed, by then, any different attitude on her part, but after dinner, on our way to the train station, she tried to hold my hand“, recalls the priest, who assures that, at that moment, he tried to avoid her as politely as he could.
Once at the hotel, as they were in the elevator going up to their rooms, her advance became more explicit. “She started getting closer to my face and tried to kiss me, I moved away, and again tried to avoid her without being rough“, he explained.
“Then she told me she had fallen in love with me, to which I answered that I had a family, I was a priest, and I could not return such feeling. I did so very carefully to avoid hurting her feelings“, the priest said, and added that Cecilia burst into tears before they left for their rooms.
Alleged messages from Cecilia to Nakayama after the trip to Japan
For the first time, Nakayama showed alleged private chats between him and Califano ⎼apparently already examined and checked by an Informatics expert in order to be presented to the courts⎼ where she declares here love to him and justifies her reaction. “¿Did you realize why I cried? That’s the story of my life. Every person I love disappears”, she wrote.
However, in answer to Infobae’s question on the chat exchange, although Califano admitted that the conversation did exist, she explained: “It is out of context, I am speaking of the love of a disciple towards their mentor”. “From this conversation, all that appeared above and below is missing; I was telling him that he was going to disappear as well, because, after what had happened, everything was irreversible”, she added.
“I learnt about what she said had happened when she published it on Facebook”, said Paula, who has been a Buddhist practitioner for 30 years and a member of The Nichiren Shoshu for the latest 20 years. “Cecilia continued attending and making proposals for two more months as someone who is a member of the temple; her accusation took me by surprise”, she admitted.
“To some of us, she sent a message on WhatsApp with her version of the sexual assault, which she later published on Facebook and other social networks”, said María Cecilia, who has been collaborating every day for three years at the Carabobo Ave. seat, and met Califano as a member of the organization.
Nakayama with Paula Andrea Rodríguez, one of the members of The Nichiren Shoshu
“It is quite embarrassing ⎼I say this as a believer and as part of the organization⎼ listening to the reverend giving explanations on this issue“, Paula acknowledged, and also added a piece of information which might provide another interpretation of the events, and is connected to a possible foul play by a cult rivaling Nichiren Shoshu.
Some weeks after Cecilia filed the complaint, a woman who had not been attending the temple for months, [a woman] from the south of the country, phoned Paula to tell her that she had learnt of the accusation against Nakayama, and that the same had happened to her.
Upon working on the case, the court discovered that not only had the woman used a false name when approaching The Nichiren Shoshu, but also held a high position within Soka Gakkai International, a rival Buddhist group.
Nichiren Shoshu ceremony in progress at theTemple in Flores
“It is not the first time this happens; it started years ago”, explained Paula, and revealed that they had been attacked by the cult ⎼which, alike the rivalry, has its origin in Japan⎼ several times in the past.
Such attacks, according to The Nichiren Shoshu, have ranged from supposed infiltrators sabotaging Nakayama’s seminars in other cities, false accusations in the ’90s, up to acts of vandalism against the temple, although they cannot prove Cecilia has had any contact with them.
Besides, some weeks after the charge for sexual assault in Japan was filed, another anonymous allegation involved Nakayama and the temple, this time regarding human trafficking and capturing wills for prostitution purposes, was filed with judge María Romilda Servini’s court.
Nakayama, in full worship
Members of the federal security forces, following orders by Federal Prosecutor Paloma Ochoa, mingled with The Nichiren Shoshu believers and carried out a covert investigation with negative results. The file was soon dismissed, and recently reopened upon request by Califano, who gave testimony through a one-way mirror.
Nakayama filed a misdemeanor complaint against Califano with the Buenos Aires City Prosecutor’s Office (“Ministerio Público Fiscal de la Ciudad”), a civil-matters mediation to which the 39-year-old woman failed to appear because, according to her representatives, at that moment she did not have an attorney.
She, on her part, goes ahead with the charge she filed before Criminal and Correctional Court Nº. 12, while she is trying to travel to Japan, where the alleged sexual assault took place, in order to file other complaints there, such as Thelma Fardín did in Nicaragua.
Photos: Gustavo Gavotti