Felicity is a Tara Dance Mentor leading the dance in her homeland of Australia and in Japan. she writes…
In November 2024, our beloved Yamachan (Yamamoto Tatsuji) died alone of a stroke in his cold, old house in the mountains. It was 3 weeks before his friend found his body and she is still quiet traumatised by the experience. Rejected by his family, we who loved and appreciated him planned to have a 3 day memorial for him at Echoji temple at the base of Fujisan in April 25. It’s 25 years now that we have danced Tara in Japan and it drew Taras together from over that time. Yamachan was always at our Tara gatherings, a protector, healer, friend and supporter to all, he would do his best to fulfill any request, anticipate our needs and gave a mean massage. He was a brilliant acupuncturist, masseur and homeopath whose specialist was helping women to become pregnant (not literally- smiles) Enjoy the full Mandala youtube of this event
Personally, I’ve known Yamachan since 1989, a dear friend, brother and beloved man in my life. Shozen, our friend the monk of the Jodo Shinshu sect gave a Buddhist funeral ritual and we danced the full Mandala for him. It was a wonderful gathering of friends and veteran Taras, we shared many memories, laughed and cried, ate lots of good food and we felt his presence as we sent our collective prayer to him. We all miss him but wish him well on this next journey. At the end we decieded that when anyone of us dies, we will gather and dance the Mandala for them. OM TARE!
