Written by Eliza Strong
Fumiaki Tosu learned radical hospitality by example. After World War II, Fumi’s grandparents were fortunate to have financial and housing stability in Takamatsu, Japan while many others struggled to make ends meet. The family extended their good fortune by opening up their doors to whomever needed a place to stay. “For several decades [after the war], their house was a kind of revolving door of hospitality to extended family members, strangers, and acquaintances who needed a place to stay for six months or a year or two,” he recounts from family stories.
Fumi’s work at Dandelion House, a Catholic Worker led home that provides housing and meals to Portland community members, is strikingly similar to the informal work his grandparents did. As the founder of Dandelion House, Fumi utilizes the principles of the Catholic Worker movement, which he describes as a “faith-based anarchist movement” to welcome individuals in need of housing into a community-centered house that offers fresh meals and opportunities to make connections.
When I asked Fumi about how story has affected his values and path toward founding Dandelion House, he told me about attending weekly Catholic mass as a child, and being moved by the stories of resistance to oppression and injustice he heard in the gospels. Soon after getting involved in the Catholic Worker movement, which recognized the same justice oriented values in Catholicism as Fumi, he had a revelation. After spending the morning joining other Catholic Workers in Los Angeles to protest the United States involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the group attended mass, where Fumi heard the same gospel he’d grown up with anew. During the Eucharist, Fumi was called to remember, as he had before, the story of “Jesus’s body being broken and blood being spilt. What clicked was that this story is alive today… in people whose actual bodies are broken and people whose actual blood is spilled on battlefields and in our cities.” Fumi’s interpretation guides him in working toward creating “an alternative story to the mainstream Capitalist one that we have to make compromises for.”
Dandelion House is a manifestation of this alternative story. By offering a place for people to stay and participate in routine when they need it, Fumi counters narratives that are based in fear and prejudice. To offset possible resistance from people who are concerned about this non-traditional housing arrangement, he’s included neighbors and other friends in community dinners, where they can exchange stories and hear from those staying at Dandelion House.
Fumi participated in The Hearth’s Certificate in Community Storytelling Training just after founding Dandelion House. He has used the tools offered at the training to connect with his community, both at Dandelion House and in other work, such as guiding storytelling retreats and connecting with other Faith Leaders to counter political divisiveness. “I’ve basically incorporated storytelling into every public thing that I do because it’s so effective at connecting people with personal experience,” says Fumi. Driven by faith to imagine a different story for our social and economic systems, Fumi has utilized storytelling within his own community to create an example of genuine justice and care.
