-Caveat Lector-
<A HREF="aol://4344:30.L100TldX.365019.662016871">
Associated Press
December 26, 2000
Japanese Town Claims Tomb of Christ
SHINGO, Japan (AP) - Nearly 2,000 years ago, a man fled for his
life from the Middle East, crossing Siberia and Alaska before
living out his days in this snowbound hamlet in northern Japan.
The tale is fanciful enough, but even more so when townspeople
tell you the name of the visitor they say is buried here: Jesus
Christ.
This strange historical theory is founded on a radical rewriting
of the Christian belief that Jesus was crucified, resurrected
three days later and then rose to heaven - all in Jerusalem. It
has its roots in shaky archaeology and shadowy local customs some
say came from the Holy Land.
Many officials here disavow the theory, but nevertheless, some
10,000 people visit the Shingo burial site each year. Perhaps
it's because the legend fits in with the fascination in Japan -
where fewer than 1 percent of the people are Christians - with
such trappings of Christianity as Christmas and church weddings.
The Jesus-in-Japan theory first emerged in the 1930s when
researchers claimed to have found a ``will of Christ'' - the
original of which was lost during World War II - indicating that
Jesus was buried in Shingo. Later, a burial mound believed to fit
the theory was found in the village about 370 miles north of
Tokyo.
According to the story, Jesus came to Japan in his early 20s,
studied Japanese culture and religion and then returned to Judea
when he was 33 to begin his ministry. He was never crucified -
having switched places with his younger brother Isukiri - and
managed to flee across Siberia to Alaska and on to Japan by boat.
In Shingo, Jesus is said to have married, had three daughters and
lived until age 106.
No one has actually ever burrowed into the mound to study its
contents, as far as town officials know.
Townspeople are reluctant to profess much belief in the story.
But the town is not resisting its fame - or the money tourists
bring with them.
The hamlet has held a ``Christ festival'' every June since the
early 1960s at the mound, where a signboard declares the tomb
``holy ground.'' In 1997, a small exhibition hall was built
nearby.
On display there is the other half of the Jesus in Japan story:
Exhibits on age-old Shingo customs that the villagers say
indicate an ancient link with the Middle East and Christianity.
Displays include a doll of a child with a cross painted on its
forehead, which officials say Shingo villagers used to do to
infants. Traditional clothes in the exhibit are hung with Star of
David emblems.
One display tells the story of a village chant that is
meaningless in Japanese, but is supposedly derived from an
ancient Hebrew song. The museum says the town's former name,
Herai, comes from the word Hebrew.
Mitsuru Takahashi, a liquor store owner who sells ``Christ
hometown sake'' and tea cups with crosses on them, said he isn't
sure about Jesus really being buried here.
``But I wonder if there is someone great in that tomb, someone we
should respect and praise,'' he said.
Some say the grave might be that of a leader of the Ainu, the
indigenous people who inhabited the islands before the ancestors
of today's Japanese arrived from the Asian mainland. Another
theory raises the possibility that the tomb holds the body of a
missionary who came to the remote north to escape a crackdown on
Christians in Japan in the late 1500s and early 1600s.
The nearest Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Marcel Poliquin, a
Canadian who has been in Japan for 40 years, looks at the legend
with amusement.
``It's just a way of attracting tourists, making money,'' he said
in Towada, about 45 miles from Shingo. ``I say it as a joke:
`Christ died in my parish.'''
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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