The Divine Rice-Farmer: Jesus In Japan

The village of Shingō, in the Aomori Prefecture of Japan's Tōhoku Region, is in generally pretty unremarkable. It has a population of 2,632, an economy mainly based on agriculture and it has chosen the Asian Skunk Cabbage as its official flower. The Skunk Cabbage may, indeed, be amusing but other than that all seems rather normal about this northern Japanese settlement. 

Did I mention that it claims to have the final resting place of Jesus Christ? No? Oh.

According to local legend, the young Jesus came to Japan from Judea to pursue knowledge of the divine for 12 years before returning to his homeland to engage in his evangelical mission. As we all know, his mission did not go all to plan and the subsequent betrayal lead to the execution of Jesus by crucifixion. Or did it? The people of Shingō, Jesus was replaced on the cross by his brother Isukiri (a wonderfully Japanese name) while the Son of God fled back to Northern Japan. It is claimed that Jesus then became a rice farmer, married, had three daughters and died at the grand old age of 106. His body was then excarnated and the bones collected and buried in a mound in the Shingō village. 

Resting place of the divine rice-farmer.

I can not help but feel that this tale takes a lot away from the traditional Jesus story. The removal of his own personal sacrifice and the redemption of all sin; the purity of the Christ figure; and most importantly the whole darn resurrection thing. I am not sure that the people of Shingō actually fully understand the point of the Christian story. It is a legend, without basis, but it is an intriguing one. As the Christian world is full of relics of saints and disciples (often multiple versions of the same people and body parts if everyone is to be believed), it is rather amusing that a small village in Japan, where Christianity is a minority religion, is bold enough to claim the Christ figure himself. 

While the legend of Shingō is in essence no more fanciful that the legends of Joseph of Arimathea coming to England or the tales of saintly miracles, the fact the Shingō legend places Jesus in Japan is such a seemingly absurd notion that one can not but laugh at the suggestion. It makes one suspend the usual casual acceptance of legendary contrivances in such tales. We are able to humour the absurd notion that Jesus could turn water into wine, it makes sense in the context; but to suggest that he was able to and wished to flee to Japan seems more unlikely to us. Physically more possible, more rooted in reality but so far out of the context of the accepted biblical story that we dismiss it out of hand. Quite peculiar, really. It's interesting how much our suspension of disbelief is so firmly routed in our cultural context. 

I quite like the idea of a rice-farming Jesus settling down in a remote area of a far-flung land, living a life of peace. Seems far more in-fitting with his evangelical mission than the divine banisher of demons, leader of the armies of heaven and the right hand of God into which Christian Mythology has developed him. I'd rather put my faith in a peaceful rice-farmer any day.