Incomplete Draft--please send corrections, additions etc. to cliff@jikoji.org

This briefly outlines the attempt of Haiku_Zendo/Bodhi to buy the Pendler estate according to recollections of Jerry Halpern. The story is an important part of Kobun’s biography and of the founding of Jikoji.

Charles Pentler was married to a Japanese woman, Fumiko Muriyama Pentler. Their residence in the hills west of Cupertino was of Japanese style. It was elegant and situated on a modest amount of land. It was ideal for Kobun and for a practice place in this area. The Pentlers were associated with the local Quaker meeting and had bequeathed their home to the Quaker Meeting. The Quakers were in the process of establishing a meeting place and expected to sell the Pentler property and use the money for their prospective meeting place. Meanwhile, Haiku-Zendo/Bodhi discovered that this Pentler property was on the market. What could be better!! The Quakers were approached, and considering their sympathy for the nature of the practice around Kobun, not to say of how appropriate this Japanese building was for him, they were willing to offer the estate to Bodhi for a good price. So Bodhi launched an effort to raise the money and buy the estate. [A copy of the old brochure that was designed for that effort with Kobun's calligraphy on one side is on the wall in the Jikoji community building's dining room].

Brief Memories of the Pentlers, by Grace Battjes

Dr. Charles Pentler and his wife Dr. Fumiko Muriyama Pentler. Both were chemists who met during the 2nd World War while doing work for the US government. She developed msg to enhance the flavor of the GI rations. They fell in love. His family was from Palo Alto, CA. Hers in Japan. (Her brother was active in Boy Scouts in Japan and a butterfly expert.) While living on in the hills they developed chemicals that could be used in kennels that decreased the female odors of female dogs during their estrous. This was sold to breeders. We owned one of the puppies that was the result of their dog trials. They had two big barns on the property before they built their beautiful Japanese style house. We had many picnics there with our children as it was being built.

The house had several levels since each of them had their own interests. Fumiko raised silk worms and wove beautiful silk fabrics. Art pieces. I believe the museum in San Jose had one a long time ago. Charles continued with his interest in plants and chemistry. Tatami mats covered the floors, and there was a tokanomo corner with a kakimono hanging and ikabana shelf, as well as shrine walls in the two wings.

We moved to Portland and did not see them for a few years. But we did write. His family wrote to us when both he and Fumiko died.... within a few weeks of each other. I always saw it as a true love story. And the house built of love between two cultures. The Buddhists should have bought it.

Besides the money, the main hurdle was to get zoning approval [a "use permit"] to use the property as both a residence for Kobun and as a Buddhist temple and meditation hall. Toward the beginning the process, the Quakers gave Bodhi an option to buy which Bodhi could exercise until a certain date. That is, the Quakers had contractually committed themselves [up to a certain date] to sell to Bodhi for a specified price.

Eventually, the use permit was granted, but Bodhi’s option to buy lapsed before the specified price to buy the property had been raised

At that time, the Quaker meeting, or a faction within it which prevailed, decided that the deal they had offered was too generous, that the Pentler Estate could be sold for substantially more than what was in Bodhi's option to buy, and that in the best interests of taking good care of the Quaker meeting they should raise the price substantially. The option had lapsed and the Quakers raised the price to something beyond the ability of Bodhi to pay.

Kobun was deeply disappointed.

A fuller and more detailed narrative of Bohdi’s extended attempt, with a number of twists and turns, to acquire the Pentler property can be found in articles (largely by Angie Boissevain) in the Spring 76, Summer 77, Winter 78, and Summer 78 issues of Bodhi’s irregular publication HoTo. All these links are on Jikoji Archives

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