Raw Japan

Matchmaking gets divine touch

I admit there was some personal interest when I volunteered to cover the praying/speed-dating event at a shrine in Tokyo recently. I wanted to see what a matchmaking event at a shrine involves and who would attend.

I did not expect, though, that I would actually get involved.

A group of 14 women and 14 men gathered at Imado shrine in Tokyo, which honours Japan’s indigenous Shinto gods of marriage. The participants varied in age and occupation, but had one common goal — finding a good marriage partner.

“We said it’s up to the gods now. If we go on as we have, we probably won’t ever meet anyone,” Rie Suzuki, a 40-year-old attending with her friend told me.

The event, which combines praying with speed-dating, is aimed at marriage and the economic stability it could provide, as singles actively seek a partner through “konkatsu,” or spouse-hunting.

Such activities range from dating websites to participating in events like “grass-mowing for singles”. Imado Shrine’s two-hour, $65 event, is also on the list of some marriage-hunters.

from FaithWorld:

Japan’s rare Catholic PM Taro Aso meets Pope Benedict

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, a member of Japan's tiny Roman Catholic minority, had a chance toenjoy some time away from political trouble at home when he met with Pope Benedict on Tuesday.

As his first stop during a trip to attend July 8-10 summit of G8 leaders in Italy, Aso went to the Vatican, gave the pope a Sony digital video camera and discussed the global economic crisis with him.

His visit was timely in that respect -- Benedict published an encyclical on economic and social issues today, calling for a bold reform of the world economic order to overcome the financial crisis and redirect the focus of business to the welfare of all people.

Aso, the first Japanese prime minister to meet a pope in 10 years, told Benedict that Japan wanted to cooperate with the Vatican, according to his aides. According to the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, the two men had a cordial discussion that "touched on current international issues such as the economic crisis and the commitment of Japan and the Holy See to Africa. On the bilateral level, the good relations between Japan and the Holy See were noted."

For the unpopular prime minister, who looks set to lose a general election due by October, meeting Pope Benedict was probably a personal highlight of his trip, even though voters would not care much.

Aso is having a tough time at home with his support falling on doubts about his leadership abilities and the main opposition party has a good shot at ending more than a half-century of almost unbroken rule by Aso's business-friendly Liberal Democratic Party.

Pope Benedict told Aso that he was happy to meet a Japanese prime minister who is Catholic and to know that Japan's society is open to various religions.

from FaithWorld:

Catholic regular at Shinto shrines to visit pope at the Vatican

Pope Benedict has been criticised for his handling of relationships with the world's other religions. On Monday Tuesday, he is due to receive at the Vatican Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso, who has little difficulty with mixing and matching various faiths.

Though an avowed member of Japan's tiny Roman Catholic minority, Aso regularly pays respects and offers gifts at Shinto shrines. Japan's indigenous religion of Shinto is polytheistic -- its doctrine says the world is crowded with divinities, mostly in natural phenomena such as the sun, moon, wind and mountains. Combining this with Christianity's monotheism may sound like a contradiction, but it is something many Japanese Catholics take in their stride.

Aso's visits have in the past included trips to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which is dedicated to war dead and to 14 people judged by an Allied tribunal to be Class A war criminals. Many in Asia see it as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. But Aso has stayed away since becoming prime minister last year, probably more to avoid offending China than for religious reasons. For more on Aso and his faith, see our post about him when he took office.

Whether visits to Yasukuni overstep the boundaries of Catholic doctrine is a difficult question, according to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan. "This a very delicate problem," a spokesman for the conference told me. "There is the issue of how far the Vatican understands the real nature of Yasukuni."

In the 1930s, when visits to Shinto shrines were made compulsory by the military government, Japanese Catholics asked the Vatican for advice on whether this was acceptable. The reply was that the visits were an expression of patriotism and loyalty, and therefore permitted, the spokesman for the conference said, adding that this may have been an attempt to avert a repeat of the persecution that all but wiped out Christianity in Japan in the 16th century. A second request for instructions from the Vatican after Japan's World War II defeat and the official separation of religion and state got the same answer in 1951.

"But the problem is that Yasukuni shrine treats those who died in the war as gods. The Catholic teaching is that people cannot be gods," the spokesman said. "So worshipping is not allowed. It is not forbidden to go there to think of those who died, but worshipping is not allowed."

"It is the same for other Shinto shrines. As far as we are concerned, there is no god other than the Holy Trinity," he added.

The cheapest facial in Japan

For a variety of religious and cultural reasons, women are sometimes excluded from certain traditional Japanese rituals such as entering the ring of the ancient sport of sumo.

At a hadaka matsuri, or naked festival, I covered this week, women were not getting into a muddy pond with loin-cloth wearing gents but were having fun on the sidelines.

An 87-year-old woman I spoke with after the participants dabbed her face with mud, said she would live longer after her earth-toned facial.

I received my own mini-mud pack, when one of the most enthused participants gave me the cheapest esthetic treatment of my life that I wore back to the office.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao

Beating poverty, literally

In the depths of what may be Japan’s worst recession ever, more than a few people feel like they have been kicked hard.

At Bimbogami Shrine, in the mountains about four hour’s drive from Tokyo, the downtrodden can hit back — literally.

I travelled to the shrine where male and female pilgrims were beating the hell out of the God of Poverty, in an age old ritual.

Under instruction from the head of the shrine, the stressed and impoverished offered a little common-man payback, using a red rod to whack the god’s wooden pillar.

The founder of the shrine, an entrepreneur who has suffered several businesses busts including an ostrich farm, says his own failures taught him the importance of perseverance in trying times.

The shrine, which gets up to 500 visitors a day, is a low-income operation for those wanting to vent their spleen at a low-income world. 

Plum blossoms herald spring in chilly Japan

For many, the cherry blossom is the quintessential Japanese flower, its fragile pink petals symbolising the transience of life and its advent in spring an excuse for “hanami” picnics beneath the boughs, where sake and song flow in equal measure.

But some, myself included, confess to a deeper affection for the more modest plum, whose five-petalled white and pink flowers bloom in February, heralding spring despite a winter chill.

This coincides with the first month of the lunar calendar, and the flowers are included as a symbol of new beginnings in New Year decorations, along with the pine for longevity and bamboo for strength and flexibility.

Imported from China more than 1,000 years ago, the fragrant “ume”, also known as Japanese apricot, was a favourite in the poetry of royal courtiers in the Eighth Century.

Unseasonably warm weather last weekend meant plum trees burst into bloom, wafting sweet scent through Tokyo parks and residential streets.

For those willing to venture further afield, one newspaper listed the best spots for viewing the blossoms in all their variety, from palest white to nearly crimson.