Japanese University Shows Its Campus, Once the Site of Sect

The ornate gate that once guarded the secrets of the mysterious Church Universal and Triumphant religious sect was open Sunday.

For the first time since 1978, when the sect moved into the Calabasas mansion, neighbors and public officials got a look inside the rambling Mediterranean-style estate.

“We have no secrets,” said Hiroshi Okayasu, an official of Tokyo’s Soka University, which bought the 218-acre estate on Mulholland Highway near Las Virgenes Road from the sect last July for $15.5 million. “We will be open to the community from now on. We want to be a part of the community.”

Soka University was founded in 1971 by Nichiren Shoshu, a Buddhist sect, and has approximately 5,100 students. Okayasu said there are no religious teachings in the university curriculum.

Speaking through an interpreter, Okayasu said university officials scheduled the open house as soon as they officially took possession of the property Dec. 15.

“We knew the neighbors wanted to know what was going on,” Okayasu said. “We’d owned the property since July, and people were getting curious.”

Between July and December, some members of the Church Universal and Triumphant, which relocated to a remote Montana ranch, lingered behind at the former church headquarters. But on Sunday, no trace of the sect or of their leader, “Guru Ma” Elizabeth Clare Prophet, remained.

At a cost of $1 million, Okayasu said, university workers dismantled altars and removed walls that had divided the estate’s spacious rooms. Not even the tower, in which the cult leader was said to have received messages from higher beings, remained.

Transformation By July

By July, Okayasu said, the estate’s 14 buildings will have been transformed into the Japanese university’s first American campus.

Workers now are restoring the original splendor of the 56-year-old mansion first owned by the Gillette razor-blade family. A tile mural by ceramic painter M. Ramos Rejana uncovered while chipping away the paint in one area of the main house will be preserved, university officials said.

A lake that will feature several white swans and 150 goldfish, a swimming pool the shape of an old fashioned double-edge razor blade, the 14 buildings with their thick walls and natural hardwood floors--all will be restored. The natural mountain terrain, more than 200 acres, will be shared with the community, Okayasu said.

At the open house, about 100 neighbors, Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff’s department officials and other government representatives watched a slide show featuring the university and dined on sushi, barbecued ribs and hamburgers. Members of Nichiren Shoshu of America guided the guests on a tour of the estate’s buildings and grounds.

Setting Considered Ideal

The beautiful hilltop setting, similar to the university’s location in a Tokyo suburb, is considered an ideal setting for learning, he said.

No new buildings will be added for classrooms and dormitories, Okayasu said. The university will open for its first session sometime in July with about 200 Japanese students coming for two sessions of English language studies. The teachers will be from UCLA, with which the university has an exchange program, Okayasu said.

Language is emphasized by Soka University as a means toward world peace and better understanding between the United States and Japan, he said.

Future Goals

Eventually, university officials said, they want to open the campus to American students studying Japanese.

And, Okayasu said, university officials hope to expand the curriculum until it becomes a four-year liberal arts university.

“That is our dream,” he said. “But, as of now, it is only a dream. We have much to do before it becomes a reality.”