Jesus Christ died in Japan? A strange Japanese legend says yes, you know?

There are two tombs on a steep hill in a remote corner of northern Japan. According to local legend, in one of them Eternal Rest lay a shepherd who stayed nearby almost 2000 years ago and cultivated garlic.

He fell in love with the daughter of a local farmer, Miyuko, had three children with her, and died at the honorable age of 106. Now he is remembered in the nearby town of Shing called Daitenku Taro Jurai. The rest of the world knows this pastor as Jesus Christ.

It turns out that Jesus of Nazareth, the messiah considered the Son of God in Christianity, did not die crucified on Mount Calvary. Is that at least what the local Japanese legend says?

According to the surprising Shing Village legend, based on the 1936 Found and Later Lost in an ancient manuscript, it was not Jesus who was crucified, but rather his brother Isukiri, whose ears are buried in the adjacent tomb. And the descendants of Jesus still live in the town.

The manuscript retells the life story of Jesus as follows: Jesus first came to Japan at the age of 21 and studied theology here. In Japan, Jesus spent 12 years, an entire period not mentioned in the New Testament.

While living in Japan, Jesus became a disciple of a local sage, learned Japanese, and delved into oriental culture. At the age of 33, he returned to Judea and began to speak about the “holy land” from which he had returned.

The Romans soon arrested Jesus and sentenced him to crucifixion for heresies. But he deceived the executioners by exchanging places with his brother Isukiri.

Jesus, fleeing persecution, traveled to Japan with two relics: one from his brother’s ear and a lock of hair from the Virgin Mary.

Jesus traveled to Japan for four years, his way extended through the harsh expanses of Siberia, even reaching Alaska. Finally, Jesus reached Hachinohe, a Japanese town near Shing, by boat.

Upon arriving in this town, Jesus came up with a new name, a new identity, and started a family. He helped the locals for the rest of his life, although, as far as he knew, miracles were no longer performed.

His appearance was characterized by an exceptional nose, which, according to a local museum brochure, led him to be called the “long elf.”

When Jesus died, his body lay on the top of the hill for several years until it was completely crushed. Then, following the customs of the time, his bones were collected in a bag and buried in the tomb. That tomb, surrounded by a fence, still exists, on which is a wooden cross.

Since then, the people of Shing Village have had different religious traditions than the rest of Japan. The men wore clothes reminiscent of the robes of biblical characters.

The women wore facial shawls and the children were wrapped in wicker cradles similar to those found in the Holy Land. And crosses were drawn on the foreheads of the newborns.

This whole story sounds like a pretty poor plot from a humorous movie parodying religion. But such a legend exists. The tomb of Christ can be visited by anyone who wants, and there is a museum dedicated to the legend.

Probably in the bottom of their hearts, the current inhabitants of Shing Village do not believe in the legend, but they do not publicly acknowledge it as it is an important part of rural identity. And furthermore, the legend draws tourists to a remote Japanese town, so it has practical benefits. And how did the legend arise?

The legend was born in the interwar period

If something is really buried in the tombs of Jesus and his brother, then Christian missionaries who once came to Japan can be buried there. The first missionaries arrived in Japan in 1549, but the local government did not want to share influence with them, and finally in 1614. the practice of Christianity was banned throughout Japan.

Christians had to profess their religion illegally. They faced brutal persecution. Japanese officials conducted tests to uncover hidden Christians: for example, suspected Christians had to crush the cross or mistake the image of the baby Jesus.

Christians who refused to renounce the faith were crucified, tortured, burned or militant. Eventually, Christianity survived only in individual closed communities, often taking unusual forms.

It is possible that the town of Shing was one of those communities, which would explain why this town has strange Christian legends that the surrounding towns do not have.

Only in 1868. Isolated Japan reopened to the West and the practice of Christianity was allowed again.

In the form we know now, the legend of “Jesus of Japan” was born in 1936. Then a “team of archaeologists from the International Society for the Study of Ancient Literature” found an ancient manuscript in which was written the will of Jesus. It is in this manuscript that there is also information about the exact burial place of Jesus in the village of Shing.

Or so the local museum says. Unfortunately, the museum also claims that the manuscript was destroyed during WWII, and only a copy made after its discovery has survived. This document, which can be seen in the museum, is signed as follows: “Jesus Christ, the Father of Christmas.”

Therefore, it is no longer possible to check the manuscript. However, believing the legend, to the exclusion of everything else, is difficult simply because 2,000 years ago, as far as we know, the Japanese still could not read and write. Even the Japanese elite took over the letter from China a few hundred years later, and the letter reached rural areas even later.

Therefore, it would be difficult to imagine the creation of a document written 2,000 years ago in a remote area of ​​Japan. On the other hand, there is talk of Jesus and he performed miracles.

The aforementioned “team of archaeologists”, who supposedly found the manuscript, consisted of a Shinto priest, a historian, and a Christian missionary, who have already made famous claims that the emperor of Japan is also a Jewish messiah. They presented their findings to the residents of Shing.

The locals liked the legend. The area where the hill was located belonged to the local Sawaguchi family of great farmers during the interwar period, and they ruled the land for centuries. One member of the family, Sanjiro Sawaguchi, had blue eyes, a rarity in Japan. Those around him began to say that this could mean that he was a descendant of Jesus and Miyuk.

The hill, then covered with bamboo, was cleared and a cross was erected on it.

By the way, the “archaeologists” finds were not limited to the tomb of Jesus and his brother. They also claimed to have found that Adam and Eve were buried nearby, and that there were once seven great pyramids nearby, several thousand years older than the Egyptians or Aztecs, but in the 19th century. collapsed.

Indeed, a large pile of stones can be found near the Tomb of Jesus, but to consider it the ruins of a pyramid is, to put it mildly, audacious.

However, in 1936. Such stories were popular in Japan. Japan was very nationalistic at the time, and much of the country’s population and the ruling regime did not care much if the statements sounded logical.

The Japanese government then paid much attention to the exaltation of Japan and the Japanese over other countries and cultures.

Although the government did not specifically encourage this story, the discovery that even Jesus Christ lived most of his life in Japan was “bad” on the general mood of Japan at the time, and it is no wonder many locals believed it. .

At a similar time, the tomb of Moses was found in a completely different location in Japan. The Japanese press at the time wrote that this proves that Moses received the Ten Commandments of God from the Emperor of Japan. And that the Emperor of Japan is indeed God.

The Feast of Christ is also celebrated

After World War II, fierce nationalism in Japan disappeared, and with it the belief in similar legends. But at least the legend has preserved its external form.

Now, according to official figures, there is only one person living in the town of Shing who considers himself a Christian. The nearest church is 50 km from the village. However, this does not stop Shing Village from proudly proclaiming the “House of Christ”. The tomb of Christ became an important part of the rural identity.

The hill on which the tomb is located is maintained and maintained. Every year, the tomb of Christ is visited by about 20 thousand people. tourists. There is also a museum of the legend of Christ in the village, which, of course, costs little: only 100 yen (about 80 euro cents).

The Museum of the Legend of Christ houses an intense trade in souvenirs, from coasters to coffee mugs. Every spring the “Feast of Christ” takes place here, a celebration that combines the customs of different religions, during which women dressed in kimonos dance around the tomb and repeat litanies in an incomprehensible language.

This celebration, designed to comfort the spirit of Jesus, has been organized by the local tourist office since 1964.

It is important to note here that the majority of Japanese are Buddhists or Shintoists. Only about 1.2 million, or about 1 percent, of the Japanese population consider themselves Christian. But there are also a lot of “popular religions” in the country.

These people believe in a variety of traditional customs and rituals, the details of which are often inherited from different religions. They may worship Christ one day, the Buddha the next, and some local deity the third.

According to religious scholars, this allows the Japanese to feel close to various deities while not accepting any of the strict compromises that organized religion often requires.

The worship of Christ in the town of Shing, according to the researchers, says more not about Christianity and the fate of Jesus, but about the Japanese: how they can reconcile completely different religious traditions, despite their obvious contradictions.

The Sawaguchi family, whose legend is the descendants of Christ, still live in Shingu Village. It is true that the main representative of this family, Junichiro Sawaguchi, says that he is a Buddhist.

He never read the Bible and did not attend church. Celebrate Christmas like many Japanese: decorate the house, but do not pray and do not give a special spiritual meaning to this celebration.

When asked if he believes that Jesus really lived in Japan for a long time, Sawaguchi replies, “I don’t know.” And when asked if it was possible that Jesus was his relative, he just shut up and shrugged.

Like many Japanese, he tries to answer controversial questions tactfully. If you simply answered negatively, you would probably feel uncomfortable around other villagers.