Jesus' Tomb

When Steve heard that there was a tomb of Jesus in Japan he felt that was too amazing to skip. His colleague in the Religious Studies department felt the same way, so we took a road trip to Shingo in the north of Japan. Sarah, John’s daughter came along with us.

The Museum at the tomb of Jesus

Here is the story: When Jesus was 21 he came to Japan and learned Eastern Wisdom which he brought back and preached in Israel. As we know, this was not accepted and so the people wanted to crucify him. However, what we did not know, until now, is that his brother was actually crucified in his place and Jesus returned to Japan and had a family and lived to the ripe old age of 101. One of the evidences of this is that one of his descendants had blue eyes! 

At the site that we visited were two large burial spots with fences around them and big wooden crosses on top. According to the legend Jesus brought Isikiri’s (his brother’s) ear with him when he returned and so Isikiri has a grave also. The people in the area have always been a little different than the rest of Japan, so they think that maybe they were one of the lost tribes of Israel.

The story did not come about until 1930 when ‘international archaeologists’ found a scroll which was Jesus’ will (written in Japanese). The original document was destroyed in WWII, but they have a copy in their museum. It was signed Jesus Christ, Father of Christmas.

An article in the Smithsonian online suggests that this has very little to do with Christianity. It has more to do with Japanese acceptance of religion. The Japanese are remarkably tolerant and soak up all sorts of influences.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-little-known-legend-of-jesus-in-japan-165354242/

It left me with a feeling of questioning and curiosity. This monument is very well taken care of and has a small museum that employs someone to take tickets and sell trinkets and obviously with some very effective landscapers. Clearly, more money is spent in keeping it up than they take in with modest entrance fees (about $1) and the sales of various items. I guess the whole story promotes the town and so whether it is true or not it has become important for them. In the article it says that a local yogurt company sponsors the site. It could be that they benefit from the added tourism the site provides.

FOOD IN JAPAN

We ate some interesting food here in Japan. It was not my favorite and I will be glad to be back to my own normal way of eating. I think the thing that I had the most often was various types of ramen. You can often get broth with either soba or udon noodles in them. They often have some sort of meat, pibamboo, green onions, egg, and other things in them. Once when we had them they came with two tempura prawns. The restaurant owner showed us that we should dip the prawns into the broth. It was pretty good.

We also went to a restaurant that specialized in tempura. Tempura is batter dipped meat and vegetables that are then fried.

The other day I had Yakitori which was chicken barbequed with a special sauce and served over rice. It was good.

John took us to some really interesting places for dinner when we were visiting up in the northern farm area. One was a conveyor belt restaurant. You sit at a table and there is a conveyor belt that goes by each table and at your table you have an iPad-like display where you can order your food.  A while after you order the food comes on the conveyor belt and a little ditty plays to let you know that it has come!  Other things come around the conveyor belt and if you want to eat them you can just take them off. Anything that is sitting on top of another dish has been ordered by someone else, but food that comes on its own is for you to take!  At the end of the meal they add up the plates at your table and that is what you are charged!

Another interesting meal was at what John called Samurai Pizza. It was a pizza place called Ecru, but it was in an area of town where Samurai lived. The house that it is in was a Samurai’s home that had been remodeled. They had some strange types of pizza, like chicken and mayonnaise, but they were good. They were small, but we got several and shared them. What a great place!

John’s sister in law (the person working in the back in the picture) has a Gelato store and sells cheese. People come from all over her area to get ice cream and cheese and she supplies some other businesses. When we were there she had 8 flavors and the strangest one to me was asparagus. Steve said, “It is a good concept. It provides an unusual palate for the discerning afficionado.”  That sounds like a professor to me. The business is called Cow Bell Farmer’s homemade cheese and Gelato. It is really worth hunting down if you are ever in Mizusawa.

One other unique type of food that we had was Onomiyaki. It is a specialty of the area around Hiroshima. It reminded me a bit of those restaurants where you go and sit at a place with other people and watch someone cook wonderful stuff for you right in front of you. We found a place that did this and took our places. We didn’t really know what to order, but we guessed. It works something like this. Right in front of you is a hot surface and they first pour a little batter and make a circle of it. Then they put on top of it a bunch of stuff. Part if your order is what you want on your Onomiyaki. After it cooks a bit the cook takes an egg and cracks it right onto the griddle and makes a circle the same size as your pancake was. Then the pancake is placed on top of the egg and it is flipped and served!

Finally, we were staying in a hotel above a Tully’s coffee store. We ate breakfast and had our coffee there. However, one day it was raining outside and there was no sense staying in our tiny room, so we went down to work on our computers at Tully’s. It was not a good time for coffee, so I decided to try something strange they were advertising. It was Strawberry Lemonade Ice with Jelly. I don’t think it is something that is offered in their stores in the USA. It was sweet and good. To me it tasted like soft gummy candy coming through the straw.

Shintoism and Buddhism

One of the great things about our travels has been the chance to be in each place with someone who could guide us. In Japan it was Professor John Traphagan who speaks Japanese and is from the Religious Studies Department at UT. He comes to Japan every summer to teach summer school at Waseda University. His wife is Japanese and so they also visit family in Japan.

John was taking his class to a Shinto Festival and so we were able to join them. This festival is at a Shrine that specifically remembers those who died in war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_Shrine. There is a museum there that has the Japanese perspective on World War II. There is a controversy surrounding this shrine. You can read about it here if you are interested.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080506141739/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/entertainment/news/20080503p2a00m0et007000c.html

What did I learn?

SHINTOISM

Shintoism is the main religion in Japan. I learned that there are hundreds of Shinto Gods and that if you are Shinto you mainly go to the shrine when you need something. You will first see a gate and then pass through two lion/dogs. The one on the right has his mouth open and the one on the left has his mouth closed. This represents the whole world.

After passing by there you get to a fountain that is set up so that you can wash your hands and cleanse your mouth before approaching the god. Then you get to the actual building and there is a bell that rings when you pull on the rope. You pull this in order to call the god and then bow twice, throw some coins into the box, clap twice keeping your hands in a prayer pose for a bit and finally bow once.

Now for what I am learning from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto: Shinto means way of the gods. Although about 80% of the Japanese practice some form of Shinto religion, but many of them do not consider themselves Shinto. The article said that there are 85,000 Shinto priests in the country. I wonder what makes someone decide to become a priest? Can women be priests? Are priests celebate?

BUDDHISM

Buddhism is the other very obvious religion in Japan. In general, we (Americans) know a bit more about Buddhism than we do about Shintoism. Steve and I kept seeing shrines that had both Buddhist items and Shinto items and we could not figure out what type of temple or shrine it was. The article in Wikipedia said that it is not strange for someone to participate in lots of Shinto ceremonies and festivals with their children, but to have a Buddhist funeral.

In our experience it seems like often Buddhist temples were part of a cemetery. All people are cremated, but they have elaborate altars/headstones because respect of the dead is really important. People are tied to the Buddhist temple by the remains of their ancestors. Death days are extremely important.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

Buddhism is extremely complicated and I only understand a tiny bit, so I will not attempt to explain anything. If you want to know more you can look at the article on Wikipedia and follow some of the reference links. It came to Japan from India, where it started, through China on the Silk Road.

According to the Wikipedia Article Tamamuro Tajiro coined a term “Funeral Buddhism” which describes what Buddhism means to many Japanese. From a very shallow one week visit it looks like this is true.