- It,s a story of Jesus Christ, and it goes a little something
like this: Jesus didn,t die up on his cross at Golgotha. That was his brother.
Christ himself fled across Siberia and, after a brief detour through Alaska,
landed in Japan " where he got married and raised a family.
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- The town, Shingo, calls itself Kirisuto no Sato: Hometown
of Christ.
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- Not many burgs outside of Bethlehem make that claim.
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- Today, Shingo is known more for its garlic farms (they
even make garlic ice cream there) and apple orchards than the Tomb of Christ
" that is, if it were to be known for anything at all (it,s not).
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- The site itself, a few minutes, drive from the town,s
tiny commercial district, is rather unspectacular. Two 8-foot-high wooden
crosses surrounded by a white picket fence sit on a bluff in the woods
overlooking a gravel parking lot. A small museum sits at the other side
of the parking lot.
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- On a typical day, dozens of people wander through. Some
leave a small offering " five-yen coins, considered lucky, are common
" in a basket at the gravesite. Some even pray.
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- The idea of Jesus visiting, much less settling down in,
Japan,s equivalent of the Ozarks may sound patently absurd. Even many locals
doubt the tale. But some residents of Shingo say it,s entirely plausible
that the man many call Messiah came here, and claim they can prove it.
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- An Ancient Scroll and a Remarkable Tale
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- In the years leading up to World War II, ancient scrolls
turned up in the hands of a Shinto priest just outside of Tokyo. They pertained
to two small, forgotten graves in the remote mountains of northern Honshu,
the main island of Japan
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- The scrolls " written in a Japanese so archaic that
only experts can read it " recount the unlikely tale of Christ,s escape
from death, and were purportedly written " or at least dictated "
by Jesus himself as his last will and testament. Call it the Last Testament.
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- When the priest realized what he had uncovered, he summoned
Banzan Toya, an artist/researcher specializing in ancient Japanese history.
Together, they located two graves in a bamboo grove on the ancestral land
of the Sawaguchi family, whose tradition held that the burial site remain
undisturbed, but did not explain why.
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- According to the scrolls, one tomb holds the ears of
Jesus, brother, Isukiri, and a lock of the Blessed Virgin Mary,s hair,
while Christ himself rests in the one directly opposite.
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- The scrolls talk of Christ,s "lost years, during
which, they say, he traveled to Japan for spiritual training. Years later,
when he was condemned to die in Judea, he escaped to his adopted hometown.
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- In Shingo, locals held him in awe as the "long-nosed
goblin. Christ supposedly changed his name to Daitenku Taro Jurai, sired
a biblical three daughters and lived to the ripe old age of 106.
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- A Dubious Character and His Hunt for Pyramids
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- The original scrolls were lost in the war, but a copy
survives, and is on display " in a glass case " at a museum on
the Tomb of Christ grounds.
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- There are some obvious problems with this tale. First,
if true it would undermine the entire basis for the Christian faith: for
the religion to be valid, Jesus had to die on the cross. It also contradicts
the Bible, which details his crucifixion.
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- The scroll was discovered in the intensely nationalistic
climate of the prewar years; similar "discoveries document Moses,
trip to Japan, where the divine emperor gave him the Ten Commandments and
the Hebrew language, not to mention the Star of David.
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- Toya himself was a bit of a dubious character; he traveled
Japan in search of seven ancient pyramids, far older than those of Egypt.
The day after he uncovered the Tomb of Christ, Toya "found one of
the pyramids nearby " a strange collection of rocks atop a small hill
and a large, flat slab he claimed was a fallen monolith.
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- A surreal road sign near the tomb of Christ today features
notations in English and Japanese denoting the locations of "Tomb
of Christ and "pyramid. This just before the chapel-shaped Tomb of
Christ bus stop, where nearby ads would lead a passing tourist to believe
the site was in some way sponsored or recognized by Coca-Cola.
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- But the tale cannot be dismissed offhand. It is very
likely the someone " or something " is buried in the tomb below.
Locals say archaeologists have confirmed that a very old crypt does, in
fact, exist beneath the gravesite, and the town claims some interesting
customs that predate the modern "rediscovery of the tomb.
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- Until recently, for example, newborn children in Shingo
were decorated with a black cross on the forehead.
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- Locals Make a Living Off the Jesus Legend
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- Even if they don,t quite believe the story, the people
of Shingo know a good thing when they see it.
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- "It,s just a way of attracting tourists, making
money, said Father Marcel Poliquin, a Roman Catholic priest in Towada,
about 45 miles from Shingo.
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- At local gift shops, believers and nonbelievers alike
can buy Jesus coasters, Jesus thermometers, Jesus telephone cards and more.
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- One shop even sells "Kirisuto no Sato sake.
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- Visitors to the tomb also inevitably pony up a few hundred
yen to visit the museum, and the town,s big annual draw is a festival at
the gravesite. There, local dancers march around the graves banging drums
and singing in a language no one understands " but some say is derivative
of ancient Hebrew.
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- "Maybe it,s true, maybe it,s not, says one friendly
local in a neighborhood bar. "It,s a legend.
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- A schoolgirl who lives in a nearby town says she,s never
been to the gravesite.
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- "But it,s probably a lie, she adds.
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- Father Marcel tries to see the humor in the heresy.
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- "I say it as a joke: Christ died in my parish.,
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- So who, if anyone, is buried in the Tomb of Christ?
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- Some speculate that it was an early leader of Japan,s
indigenous Ainu population. Some say an ancient wise man. Others believe
that an early Christian missionary rests below.
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- Or, perhaps, nothing at all. _____
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- From Mike mzawistowski@turningpoint.com
1-23-01
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- Additional webpages that describes this are found below
http://www.thiaoouba.com/tomb.htm
http://www.users.bigpond.com/naniya/
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- Along with this fortean times webpage that links to the
above and others http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/110/japson.html
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- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
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