We have already studied what Japanese Orthodoxy looks like. But if you find yourself in the small village of Shingo, then you will find yourself in the true "Twilight Zone", where the Christian prophet led a double life, earning his food by cultivating garlic. He also raised three daughters and lived a long, happy life, which ended only at the age of 106. All this information can be clarified in the smallest detail in the local "Museum of Jesus".
So let's take a closer look at Jesus' Japanese refuge.
Shingo is located in Sannohe County, Aomori Prefecture, and has a population of 2,777. Near the alleged burial site of Christ, the most popular tourist attractions are the car race track, the stunning pyramid and the huge rock, aptly named by the locals "Big Rock".
Anyway, that was the case a few years ago when Jill Colgan, an ABC reporter, visited Shingo. “It seems more than strange that a city inhabited by non-Christians is so fascinated by Christ,” she says, “but they have very good reason to believe in this amazing story.”
And she's right. The legend of Jesus in Shingo is not just a fiction to attract tourists. Locals sincerely believe in its veracity. The story goes: Jesus, 21, travels to Japan to study with a priest on Mount Fuji. At the age of 33, he returns to his homeland to preach his newfound Eastern wisdom, but instead faces a mob of angry Romans.
However, do not worry, nothing happened to him, because, as the tablet at his place of burial explains, the named brother of Jesus, Isukiri, went with him and took Jesus' place on the cross. After being executed, Jesus decides it is time to return to his life as an exile in Japan and takes as a souvenir his brother's ear and a lock of his mother's hair. It is believed that these memorabilia are buried in a neighboring, absolutely identical grave in Shingo. This is how they explain to tourists the presence of two graves instead of one.
"Tomb of Jesus Christ" in Shingo.
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In Shingo, Christ was considered a "great man", but the locals know nothing about the miracles he performed. But it is well known that he took the name Torai Taro Daitenku and started a family with a woman named Miyuko. The direct descendants of this surname today are members of the Savaguchi family, who have been caring for the burial site since time immemorial and refusing to grant exhumation permission to confirm or deny the legend, in part because they seem to be generally quite indifferent to the religious side of this amazing story.
However, near the burial site, there is a museum that provides everyone with information and ample evidence of the validity of Shingo's claim to world fame. It was thanks to the appearance of Christ in the village, according to museum information, that the local residents began to wear clothes worthy of Jerusalem and carry their children in baskets worthy of Moses.
Even in the seventies of the twentieth century, the custom was still observed here to apply charcoal stains on the forehead of babies. In addition, throughout the village there are many interpretations of the Star of David, and the local dialect is colored with numerous words associated with Hebrew.
Locals have always found the Savaguchi family quite curious. Many in the family had blue eyes, and they also held a strange heirloom: a Mediterranean grape press used by winemakers. However, when asked to talk about their potentially holy ancestry stretching back centuries, they ignore the issue, asking reporters to "believe what they like." None of this is of particular importance to members of the Savaguchi family, who, after all, profess the Shinto and Buddhist faiths.
However, the widespread legend of the expatriate Jesus brings a certain level of tourist activity and vitality to the region. Every June people gather for a big celebration near the burial sites and sing Jewish-Japanese folk songs. All this takes place during the so-called "Bon Festival".
However, is there any, even the tiniest grain of truth in this Japanese legend? There is an “unrecorded” 12-year gap in the New Testament. At some point, there was allegedly a real relic from biblical times, the Takeuchi scrolls, which surfaced in the 1930s and then disappeared during World War II. The Christ Museum in Shingo now houses the texts of lost documents that are remembered only by the oldest local residents.
Japanese Madonna.
Most historians consider this legend a sensational publicity stunt invented in the thirties by the mayor of Shingo Denjiro Sasaki, who at about the same time made a very successful discovery in his area of various ancient pyramids, including the one at the foot of the already mentioned "Big Rock" …
However, instead of dissolving over time, this story is more and more intertwined with the identity of the village, which is dominated by Buddhists. This is perhaps one of the reasons for the success. Christianity here is not a religious practice, but a means to attract tourists and organize picnics. It feeds the economy, and faith does not prevent local residents from honoring a person whom they consider not a son of God, but a professional benefactor.
If anything, local legend claims that Jesus traveled very long distances in search of food for the villagers. He became a big man in Japan, but was not considered a prophet at all.