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On Dec 15, the normally tranquil precincts of Sakuragi Shrine in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, were sullied by a mysterious vandal with a permanent black marker. A total of 13 locations, including signs and stone monuments, were scrawled upon with different phrases, but most commonly “Amazon!”
▼ News report about the incident
Luckily, surveillance cameras at the shrine caught the perpetrator in the act, and the footage, along with eyewitness testimony, led police to the recent arrest of 34-year-old Rentaro Shimada. After being charged with vandalism, Shimada admitted to the crime, but left us without an answer to the big question of “why,” or at least “why Amazon.”
While the word “Amazon!” was central to most of his scrawling, Shimada also left several messages, some of which outright defied grammatical or logical sense. Perhaps we can glean a motive based on some of the messages that he wrote, as best we can understand them.
“Amazon!”
“Amazon! These guys aren’t here!”
“Messenger from Brazil, Amazon!”
“It’s thin! Amazon!”
“Amazon!”
Or not… Though, the “Brazil” reference might indicate he was referring to the rainforest rather than the retailer. Many comments online also struggled to rationalize what happened there last December.
“Amazon fan.”
“I don’t get it at all. I guess it’s just fun for him.”
“I sometimes thank God for Amazon, but I don’t go writing it on a shrine.”
“Maybe he wrote Amazon because the shrine is surrounded by a lot of trees.”
“I wonder if any of the news outlets sponsored by Rakuten are running this story.”
“Amazon lol.”
“It’s probably some stealth marketing. They’re worried people are going to forget about Amazon.”
“The one time he wrote it above an arrow, like a play on the logo. That doesn’t explain the other 12 times though.”
Police also believe Shimada is responsible for five cases of Amazon-themed graffiti at Atago Shrine in the heart of Noda City. These writings were limited to the word “Amazon!” and focused on the chozuya basin where guests purify their hands with water. The estimated cost of cleaning up all these messes came to 300,000 yen. In particular, the writing on wooden surfaces required scraping or chemical treatments to remove.
Source: FNN Prime Online, Iza Topic, Chiba Nippo, Hachima Kiko
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2022/02/16/chiba-man-arrested-for-writing-amazon-on-shinto-shrine/
20 Comments
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wayan Ubud
some peculiar people in this world of ours
Realistic
Amazong!
Tom San
Is Rentaro Shimada his real name or the "common name" he uses?
snowymountainhell
Disrespectful in such a beautiful country.
snowymountainhell
Equally alarming and unnecessarily sensationalistic is the photographers’ choice to ‘stage’ a photo with some crude scribbling in Photoshop ? Why is that even needed other than to draw attention to a “well-known, worldwide parcel delivery service” who’s name was avoided another recent Crime in Japan news story ?
shogun36
Get a job fool, contribute to society if your have that much time to waste.
In_japan
This is Amazon!
snowymountainhell
Kamen Rider Amazon is also still popular with some guys. There’s an enthusiast who rides around Kyoto in fully decorated leathers, customized helmet and a “JungRaider” motocycle.
The white-striped tracksuit may also be another clue.
Perhaps he couldn’t remember how the spell “Amazing!”or “Adidas!”, even though it’s printed on his jacket ?
WA4TKG
Nutcase, it’s easy to loose your mind living in Chiba
Joe Blow
AMAZIN'
snowymountainhell
Have to agree. THAT photo has a certain ‘smollet’ to it.
englisc aspyrgend
Obviously a supporter of women’s lib?
Save the Amazon Forrest?
Secretly a paid advertiser for the firm?
On drugs.
Or just your common or garden nutter!
kohakuebisu
Next time I'm at a shrine, I might pay 300 yen for an ema and write "AMAZON!" on it. With "地球を大切に (save the planet)" in little letters underneath. That's as fine a wish as any, and would make a change from people writing "please let me pass my exams" on their ema.
lostrune2
His Amazon advertiser cheque is in the mail
starpunk
Does this guy think he's a 'performance artist', or maybe he thinks he's Marcel Duchamp. Or maybe he's just being a joker and thinks he's being 'cute'.
It ain't funny, man.