Sunday, July 09, 2006

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS, JAPAN EDITION TOMB OF CHRIST: NEXT LEFT JESUS' GRAVE IN SHINGO, JAPAN VIA METROPOLIS According to the local legend, Christ first came to Japan, aged 21, during the reign of the 11th emperor, Suinin, and landed at the port of Hashidate on the Japan Sea coast. Apparently, he settled in Etchu province where, under the tutelage of a great master, he studied Japanese language, literature and various other subjects. The Legend of Daitenku Taro Jurai (Daitenku Taro Jurai was the name Christ is said to have later taken) claims that at the end of his 11-year stay, Christ returned to Judea, aged 33, where he taught about the "sacred land" of Japan. But, unfortunately, "Christ's teachings about Japan were considered too radical," and he was condemned to death. The New Testament teaches Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, rose from the dead after three days and later ascended into Heaven. However, according to the legend of Herai, Jesus escaped this fate, and instead his brother Isukiri was nailed to the cross and died. Christ, meanwhile, fled with his disciples and went into hiding, carrying locks of the Virgin Mary's hair and his brother's ear. After an arduous journey across Siberia, Christ finally returned to Japan and settled in Herai where he changed his name, married a Japanese woman called Miyuko, fathered three daughters and lived to the age of 106. The New Testament teaches Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, rose from the dead after three days and later ascended into Heaven. However, according to the legend of Herai, Jesus escaped this fate, and instead his brother Isukiri was nailed to the cross and died. Christ, meanwhile, fled with his disciples and went into hiding, carrying locks of the Virgin Mary's hair and his brother's ear. After an arduous journey across Siberia, Christ finally returned to Japan and settled in Herai where he changed his name, married a Japanese woman called Miyuko, fathered three daughters and lived to the age of 106. Devout Christians may insist that the Garden Tomb, which lies not far from Damascus Gate outside the Old City of Jerusalem, is Jesus' true burial site, but the people of Herai have another story to tell-marked by a large wooden cross, Jesus' tomb (Juraizuka) sits alongside his brother's (Judaibo) in Herai. Isukiri's tomb holds his ear and locks of the Virgin Mary's hair. It's hard to imagine anyone, let alone Christ, would have schlepped out to one of the remotest parts of northern Japan in days of old, as even today it demands a great deal of effort to reach the village. Herai epitomizes the middle of nowhere. The place is little more than a lonely grocery store, a sprinkling of farmhouses and scraggly garlic fields and rice paddies blanketed with snow at this time of year. Most tourists either already know about the tombs, as well as the "pyramids" said to predate those of Egypt, or are so intrigued by the wild talk they hear of Herai while trekking out near Towadako Lake they can't resist coming to check it out. VIA TIMESONLINE   FROM LEO LEWIS IN SHINGO VILLAGE   IN A paddy-lined valley in the far north of Japan is a municipal signpost inscribed: “Tomb of Christ: next left.” Follow the winding path up into the forest and there, sure enough, is a simple mound with a large wooden cross labelled as the grave of Jesus. Nearby is a tomb commemorating Isukiri, Christ’s brother, adorned with a plastic poinsettia Christmas wreath. For two millennia the farming village of Shingo claims to have protected a tradition that Jesus spent most of his life in Japan. The village is the home of Sajiro Sawaguchi, a man in his eighties who claims to be a direct descendant of Jesus and whose family has always owned the land in which it is said that Christ is buried. Mr Sawaguchi emerged as Jesus’s heir only in 1935, when a priest in Ibaraki discovered a document in ancient Japanese purporting to be Christ’s will. This document supposedly identifies Shingo as the location of the tombs of Jesus and Isukiri. The claim is widely believed. About 40,000 Japanese visit the site every year. Two years ago it was presented with a plaque by Jerusalem, and next Sunday it will host the annual Christ festival of traditional Japanese dance. According to the account in the Christ Museum next to the tombs, Christ arrived in Japan at the age of 21 and learnt Japanese before returning to Judaea 12 years later to engage in his mission and preach about the “holy land of Japan”. The official Shingo history is that Jesus’s place on the Cross was “casually” taken by his brother, leaving Christ free to return to Japan. On his return he fell in love with Miyuko, a local girl, and lived happily with his family among the rice fields until dying aged 106. Norihide Nagano, the straight-faced curator of the tombs, says that the theory that the grave does contain the remains of Jesus is supported by several pieces of evidence. There is the local tradition, dating back hundreds of years, of drawing a charcoal cross on babies’ heads; and ancient kimonos made in the area incorporated a Star of David. The upkeep of the site is paid for out of the profits of a local yoghurt factory, and Mr Nagano agrees that The Da Vinci Code will probably boost Shingo’s coffers. The village shop is already doing a roaring trade in Christ-branded saké. “Did you enjoy the museum?” asks Mr Nagano. “If you did, I recommend you go to Ishikawa district. They have the tomb of Moses there.” 5:24:39 PM    comment []

Take your best shot. 4:19:50 PM    comment []

Death and the Poet, from Jean Cocteau's Orpheus   DR. OMED’S 24-7 SERMONETTE YOUR UNASKED QUESTIONS COPIOUSLY ANSWERED:   Dr. Omed, Why don’t you go to the movies anymore?   Dancing Elder Brother Spike recently emailed Dr. Omed a review of the new Superman movie, and asked me (and other recipients) to let him what know I (we) thought after I (we) saw it. The question was really addressed more to others he had cc’ed, but it provoked the following slightly-edited-from-the-original response:   Spike, I never go to movies anymore, unless Mrs. Dr. Omed requires my presence at her side. I did want to see Inconvenient Truth, but ironically, Mrs. Dr. Omed did not—“I go to movies to be entertained,” said she.      Why don't I go to the movies anymore:   I object to spending twenty-five bucks for two soft drinks and a movie. I dislike being obliged to sit in a dark, enclosed space full of allegedly sapient hominids whom I can not only hear hooting and gibbering, but also smell—a perfect storm of artificial and natural odors—including the menstruating females. I dislike being assaulted by ads two stories high. After the first thirty minutes of assorted two story assault ads, I dislike sitting through an two story ad that lasts one and half to two hours, when I paid to see a movie. 99.9 percent of movies released are not worth my money, and more importantly, not worth my time and attention. Most of the few movies I've seen in recent years give me the mental equivalent of hives and I have to get up and leave in the middle, which pisses Mrs. Dr. Omed off, mightily. On the rare occasions when a movie happens to be on my wavelength, so to speak, the various parts of my body begin to twitch and spasm and my hands jump up and start signaling to each other like sock puppets on crack. This pisses Mrs. Dr. Omed off even more than #6. I did tell you I was crazy, didn’t I? If I really want to see a movie, and have slightly more patience, than, say, a gnat, I can buy it on DVD for less than the cost for two movie tickets, and resell, trade, or give it away if I don't want to keep it. Our friends with the 70 inch plasma TV will buy the DVD and invite us over watch it at their house, and no one objects (much) if I’d rather sit by the fireplace and read a book. The business of humanity has become entertainment, and entertainment is the business of feeding fake fitness cues to our brains. I don’t wish to be entertained.  I am self-entertaining; I feed my own self manufactured fake fitness cues to my brain. What kind of movies do I like?   Grendel’s Laundry List: Some all time favorite films and film-makers, in no particular order:   Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, and his Beauty and the Beast   Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire   Akiru Kurasawa’s Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Kagemusha…   The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly   High Plains Drifter   Alphaville   Bladerunner   Luis Bunuel’s Simon in the Desert   Jules and Jim   Pretty Baby   Tampopo   They might be Giants starring George C. Scott, and Joanne Woodward   Soylent Green   The Omega Man   The Woman in the Dunes   Pi   Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness both starring Bruce Campbell   Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, Prospero’s Book’s and The Pillow Book   David Lynch’s Eraserhead   The original Planet of the Apes   The original Bedazzled, with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook   Myra Breckenridge, with Rachel Welch, Rex Reed, John Huston, and Mae West   M, starring Peter Lorre   Casablanca (I always cry when they sing the Marseilles.)   Lena Wertmuller’s Seven Beauties   Sir Lawrence Olivier’s Hamlet   Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V   Leni Reifenstahl’s Triumph of the Will   And that’ll do to go on. 1:36:54 AM    comment []