The Buddhist Temple of Chicago (BTC) was founded in October 1944 by Gyomay Kubose, a minister of the Higashi Honganji branch of the Jōdo Shinshū sect, along with several laypeople who had been released from the Japanese American internment camps. Although the temple is administratively independent, the teaching lineage reflects the progressive Jōdo Shinshū thought of Manshi Kiyozawa and his student, Haya Akegarasu, who was Kubose's teacher.