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For being a country so heavily steeped in traditional culture, Japan sure does love to fiddle with an amalgamation of spiritual folklore. Just listen to the bizarre conglomerate of beliefs practiced in one particular “town of mystery” in Aomori Prefecture.
Shingo town claims to be the true burial site of Jesus Christ, and if that’s not crazy enough, just wait until you hear about their connection to Dracula and the pyramids.
Shingo lies to the east of Lake Towada, near the border with Akita Prefecture. But in spite of being situated in the northeastern corner of Japan’s main island, the town claims to have the answers to many great mysteries of the Hebrew world, including the grave of Christ.
According to local legend, the man crucified at Calvary was not Jesus, but was actually Jesus’ younger brother. Whether they believe that this brother rose from the dead and saved Christians from an eternity in hell isn’t very clear, but what they are quite certain of is that the true Son of God avoided execution and secretly moved to Japan, where he had a long and happy life and eventually died of old age. There is a large cross upon a mound of earth, marking where he lay.
Never mind that this story was drawn up by some religious leader in 1935 and that the encyclopedia identifies this mound as a burial place for Edo period peasants. The town has its own museum dedicated to this story, so they must have verified their sources.
If this misplaced patch of holy ground sounds interesting to you, you may wish to check out Shingo's annual Christ Festival, held on the first Sunday of June each year. Festivities taking place at the grave site include a ritualized prayer by a Shinto priest, the offering of a sacred tree branch, and a performance of the Nanyadoyara, the area’s traditional line dance. Apparently, the absurdity of it is something that should really be experienced at least once. In 2004, Japan’s resident Israeli ambassador made an appearance at the Christ Festival and gifted the town with the Jerusalem Stone, a piece of white limestone from the city’s outer wall.
The legends of Shingo Town run far deeper than the grave of Christ. They also have their own Great Holy Pyramid, composed of the mighty sun stone, star stone, direction stone, and mirror stone. It wouldn’t surprise us if the Jerusalem Stone now sits among them. Imagine the surrealism that drivers must face when passing through the area.
It makes sense that a town riddled with so many folktales would gladly add Dracula to the mix. Perhaps the cross atop Christs’s grave inspired the introduction of vampires to the town’s call to fame. Though less a point of worship in this instance, Shingo has a local brand of ice cream called “Dracula the Premium,” which contains bits of garlic.
Aomori Prefecture is the nation’s top producer of garlic, and Shingo in particular prides itself on harvesting 400 tons of the stinky cloves each year. We’re not certain why they thought it’d be a good crop to mix in with their dairy products, but whatever floats your boat… Initially, manufacturers called their unholy mash-up “Garlic Ice Cream,” simple and straightforward. It sold relatively well on the pure strangeness factor, but as time went on, the sales numbers turned south, and a new marketing ploy was deemed necessary.
If there are two things that Dracula hates (aside from silver bullets, wooden stakes, wild roses, holy water, and a slew of other things) they are garlic and crucifixes, and if there are two things that the town of Shingo is known for they are garlic and “Christ’s grave,” with its large cross marker. These images juxtaposed to inspire a brand image, and thus the garlic ice cream got a makeover: jet black packaging with the name “Dracula the Premium,” a cross, and garlic gilded onto the front. Apparently, sales have picked up since the change, with cartons going for sale at highway rest stops and shopping malls across the prefecture.
Although garlic is usually thought of as a very strong flavor, when used in powder form, like in Shingo’s ice cream, it’s not so overpowering. Every cup of ice cream contains half a bulb of garlic, and yet they still manage to market a variety of different flavors, such as peppermint, fruit, and good, old-fashioned vanilla. The inclusion of garlic is less for flavor and more for the amount of nutrients it contains. They say that a cup of garlic ice cream a day will keep both the vampires and the doctors away. That is, assuming you can keep it down. Maybe pray for protection at Christ’s gravesite before introducing Dracula ice cream into your home.
Source: My Navi News
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Eat Ice Cream from All Over Japan Without Using the Bullet Train -- Canadian Student in Japan Ruins Delicious Snack for the Entire Country -- “Pet Bird” Flavored Ice Cream Sold at Small Bird Festival
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18 Comments
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Ben Yoshida
next they will be teaching children that Japan was made from the tip of a spear.. as the water droplets fell to the world.. and from it was born Japan. wait they already doo..
tkoind2
Christ was actually buried in my backyard in Utah next to where we buried my turtle. Though I have not managed to get tourists to pay me to see it yet. I guess I should market it a bit more.
Every country has some historically questionable notion about who was there, when and why. Cities and towns encourage this stuff to make sure that they can earn a little from the odd tourist that drops by.
I went to see the place that Mary was supposed to have died in Turkey. Others say France, others say other places. Most of this stuff is nonsense. This Japan place for the burial of Christ is pure fantasy.
SimondB
I suspect Elvis is living out his last few years up there.
edojin
Why doesn't somebody just dig into the graves and see what is actually in them? This might put a new twist on this very old, old and worn out story.
Kuribo1
Christ did not even know Japan existed when he was "alive".
realist
Jesus died and rose again in Israel. He is alive today, and will return to this earth again one day soon as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and Judge of all the Earth. He knows about this crazy town and these poor, deluded people, because He is the Creator of this world. Japan is well lnown throughout the world for the wacky, the wierd and the wonderful. This town and this story ranks among the wierdest and the wackiest. I pray the people of Shingo will come to know Him. The tomb of Jesus can be seen near the Arab Bus Station just outside the walls of Jerusalem, its called the Garden Tomb. Its empty, because he is alive. He did not die, as this story suggests, to "save Christians from Hell" He died to save all mankind, including the Japanese.
Laguna
That sounds about as likely as the more traditional version, at any rate.
illsayit
Well, 2 wells make a river you jumped in and made it bigger! Traditional version of what? Creation? Salvation? Name it, otherwise your 'sounds like' sounds like any version of those sort of things- and in that case, they ALL sound likely. The question is which one is truth, in case you hadnt realized. 2000 years history for Jesus and the Bible, plus 4000 years before that of telling that He was to come, versus this brother story which only exists here in Japan? Without even checking it out, Im pretty sure which is more likely to be a truth. But like anything, I challenge you to REALLY check out ALL sides of the stories!
Virtuoso
Actually there is a credible historical account of his arrival in Shingo.
Shingo mayor: あなたはキリストか (anata wa kirisuto ka?, are you Christ?) Newly arrived foreigner: イエス (yes).
Sounds pretty convincing to me!
thehedonist
Yeah, well my house is a meeting place for inter-galactic space aliens. Nut jobs the world over will make any kind of claim.
Piotr Gierszewski
The more I know about religion, the more I'm convinced that you can't simply remove all of these weird beliefs from society. People often do strange things, and abstract faith gives sense to the oddities of human behavior. People expect the world to make sense. Without faith it's quite impossible to think that the reality makes sense. The greatest scientific minds gave answers to many things, but nobody was able to give sense to human existence. Even atheists who theoretically don't believe in anything, and don't need faith, are much more often believing in all sorts of superstitions: about the unlucky 13, sinister 666, black cats, walking under the ladder and else.
All in all, I prefer maintaining my own religion (I'm a Christian), because it gave my life some greater sense, and I don't need all of these bells and whistles. I have a distance to my religion, I don't treat it as a source of ultimate truth or anything. It's just my filter, which I use to see a reality which is understandable to me.
Cos
Elvis lives in Osaka. I sometimes see him in the street.
KariHaruka
And 2Pac is having a blast in Roppongi.
nath
I guess we all know now where all of the hallucinogenic drugs in Japan go to.
Row Bur
one more joke in the comedy called religion.
dcog9065
Good to see the comically moronic nature of religion is unchanged no matter where you go on Earth.
BurakuminDes
What a ridiculous pile of nonsense. Everyone knows the real truth is Jesus works the night-shift here in the local 7-11. I saw him just last night wielding the tongs, dispensing hot dogs and oden.
yabits
I don't believe you. Unless, that is, those hot dogs are kosher.