Byodo-In stamp unveiled at festive celebration

By Molly Goad

United States Postal Service officials unveiled the new $6.70 stamp featuring the Byodo-In Temple in Kahaluu, Hawaii in a dedication event at the temple on Jan. 23. 

The event included a rousing Japanese drum performance to kick off the ceremony and the official reveal of the stamp. The public was given the opportunity to purchase stamps at the temple and have them hand-canceled for free. The special pictorial cancellation features two koi carp symbolizing the hundreds of Japanese fish living in the large reflective pond located on temple grounds.

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Now celebrating 50 years, the temple was built in 1968 for the 100-year anniversary of the first Japanese immigration to Hawaii. It represents a smaller version of the more than 950-year-old Byodo-In Temple in Uji, Japan. The original is a United Nations World Heritage Site.

The $6.70 denomination stamp fulfills the new rate for Priority Mail in the regular flat-rate envelope. The stamp was issued on Jan. 21 in Kansas City, Mo., without a first-day-of-issue ceremony.