R&I – FS
Religiously Japan is most notable for its Shinto, Buddhist, and Atheistic citizenry. Christians however do make a notable albeit small percentage of Japan’s population, making up roughly 1% of the country’s population. Despite this the one location in Japan that is a self proclaimed Christian holy spot, Shingō, Aomori, has at the time of this article’s recording only one Christian resident. So why then would a remote location with no actual Christian heritage be considered a holy spot? The answer is simple. Locals claim it’s the spot where Jesus actually died.
Yes that’s right. According to this fun theory Jesus never actually died and resurrected at Calvary. Rather he died an old man, at the ripe old age of 106, and married a local Japanese woman and had a happy family in Shingō. So basically Jesus was a weeb.
The way the story goes Jesus spent up to 12 years on the road travelling, hitchhiking, discovering himself, possibly hitting up a few foreign girls here and there, until near the end of those travelling years he found his way to Japan where he developed a zen-like religious personality due to the local Japanese philosophers converting him into a weeb.
After those crazy travel years of his youth were up he went back to Judea by way of Morocco for some reason and started preaching his offbrand Japanese philosophy to the local Judeans. Deciding that they did not like weebs the local Hebrews attempted to crucify.
Jesus somehow convinced his brother Isukiri to die in his place, presumably dressed up as Jesus in a hilarious disguise. Isukiri died in Jesus’s place and Jesus snuck out in an ox-cart (very heroic) and made his way back to Japan where he married a Japanese woman, integrated into the local culture, and made the Aomori prefecture his home. Basically he lived out the life that every anime-fan wishes they could.
In 2004, of all people, an ambassador from the nation of Israel stopped by and left a formal plague in Shingō commemorating the non-sacrifice of Japanese Jesus. Translated into English the plague reads “This plaque is a gift from the city of Jerusalem, as a token of friendship between the State of Israel, the city of Jerusalem and Shingo”.
So there you have it. You have the Christian Jesus who died for our sins, and the Japanese Jesus who dipped outta the kitchen when it got hot and immigrated to East Asia. Which Jesus do you prefer?
Some references:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-little-known-legend-of-jesus-in-japan-165354242/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shing%C5%8D,_Aomori
Questions:
- To the channel’s Christian followers, how seriously do you take this story? Is it heretical? Possible? Thoughts.
- To more secular readers, is this Jesus more preferable to you over the Abrahamic one? Why or why not?
Dollarmenu Jesus