Jesus Christ's Tomb in Japan?

choi

Franz Lidz, Land of Rising Son; A visit to what some claim is Jesus' final resting place * * * in Japan. Smithsonian, January 2013.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/hi ... apan-183833821.html

Excerpt in the wiondow of print: In Japan, Christmas Eve is a kind of date night in which many young people ignore the chaste example of the Virgin Mary--and instead lose their virginity.


Note:
(1) "In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he’s remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai."
(a) Shingō, Aomori 青森県三戸郡 (Sannohe District) 新郷村
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shing%C5%8D,_Aomori
(b) The article mentions "Daitenku Tarō JŪRAI," which in fact is TORAI Tarō Daitenku  十来 太郎 大天空 (That is, the family name (he selected for himself) should be transliterated/pronounced Torai, not Jūrai.)
(i) The "to"--tō, to be precise, with the macron signifying a long vowel--and "jū" are, respectively, the Japanese pronunciation 訓読 and Chinese pronunciation 音読 of the kanji 十.
(ii) Please note a Japanese commoner did not have a family name until Meiji Restoration. See Japanese name
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
(section 6 Historical names: The current structure (family name + given name) did not materialize until the 1870s when the government made the new family registration system)
(iii) Also take notice that in Jesus time, Japan had no written language. See kanji
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji
(section 1 History) 
(iv) his wife Miyuko  ミユ子
(v) his kid brother Isukiri  イスキリ
(vi) his tomb  キリストの墓 or 十来塚
(2) "Shingo nevertheless bills itself as Kirisuto no Sato (Christ’s Hometown)"

Kirisuto no Sato   キリスト の 里

(3) Legend of Christ Museum  キリストの里伝承館

denshō 伝承 【でんしょう】 (v, n): "transmission; hand down (information); legend; tradition; folklore"

(4) "Some participate in the springtime Christ Festival, a mashup of multidenominational rites in which kimono-clad women dance around the twin graves and chant a three-line litany in an unknown language."
(a) Christ Festival  キリスト祭
(b) mash-up (n)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mashup
(c) The "twin graves" refers to 十来塚 and 十代塚 (the grave of his brother Isukiri's ears; see text)

(5) "In Shingo, the Greatest Story Ever Told is retold like this: Jesus first came to Japan at the age of 21 to study theology. This was during his so-called 'lost years,' a 12-year gap unaccounted for in the New Testament. He landed at the west coast port of Amanohashidate, a spit of land that juts across Miyazu Bay"
(a) The Greatest Story Ever Told (disambiguation)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Story_Ever_Told_(disambiguation)
(b) Amanohashidate  天橋立
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanohashidate
(sandbar located in Miyazu Bay in northern Kyoto Prefecture 京都府)
(i) ten (principally), ame, ama  天 【てん(P); あめ; あま】 (n): "(1) sky; (2) (てん only) heaven; (3) (てん only) {Buddh} svarga"  (svarga is a Sanskrit noun)
(ii) tateru 立てる 【たてる】 (vt): (1) "to erect; to raise"
(iii) "Isoshimizu 磯清水 fresh water well" mentioned in the Wiki page
(iv) iso 磯 【いそ】 (n): "(rocky) beach; seashore"
(c) Miyazu Bay is surrounded (on three sides) by

Miyazu, Kyoto  京都府 宮津市
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyazu,_Kyoto

(6) "He sported a balding gray pate."

pate (n):
"1: HEAD
2: the crown of the head"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pate

(7) "The museum contends * * * that the old village name [of 新郷], Heraimura, can be traced to an early Middle Eastern diaspora. Religious scholar Arimasa Kubo, a retired Tokyo pastor, thinks Shingo may have been settled by “descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel.”
(a) Heraimura  戸来村
(b) Arimasa KUBO  久保 有政

(8) "Christian evangelists first came to Japan in 1549, but bitter infighting for influence and Japanese converts led to a nationwide ban on the religion in 1614."

History of Roman Catholicism in Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His ... atholicism_in_Japan
("Portuguese shipping arrived in Japan in 1543, and Catholic missionary activities in Japan began in earnest around 1549, [first] performed in the main by Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits;" [with 3 other Jesuits,] Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit to go to Japan as a missionary [in 1549]; section 6.1 Persecution and martyrdom)

(9) Hidden Christians  隠れキリシタン
(a)
(b) kirishitan キリシタン (n): "early Japanese Christianity; early Japanese Christian"

(The modern-day Christianity and Christian, respectively, are キリスト教 (pronounced "kirisuto-kyō") and キリスト教徒 (pronounced "kirisuto-kyōto")/ クリスチャン (pronounced "kurisuchyan").
(c) kakureru 隠れる【かくれる】 (vi): "to be hidden"

(10) "Even more curiously, Jesus lived during Japan’s Yayoi period, a time of rudimentary civilization with no written language."

Yayoi period  弥生 時代
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_period
(300 BC- 300 AD; named after the neighbourhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era)
(11) "Shingo Mayor Denjiro Sasaki" at the time

Denjirō SASAKI  佐々木 伝次郎

(12) "One of the clan, a youth named Sanjiro, was renowned for his blue eyes, something seldom seen in Japan and, as nationalist historian Banzan Toya insisted, proof that the Sawaguchis were progeny of Jesus and Miyuko, who, to complicate matters even more, is variously known as Yumiko, Miyo and Mariko. Among the magi’s other extravagant finds were seven ancient pyramids, all of which were said to predate the ones built by the Egyptians and the Mayans by tens of thousands of years. The heap of rocks generously dubbed the Big Stone God Pyramid is just down the road from the Christ tomb."
(a) Sanjirō SAWAGUCHI  沢口 三二郎 (1897-1969)
(i) Of course, biology dictates that brown eyes are dominant over blue or green eyes.
(ii) The grandson of 三二郎 is Junichiro SAWAGUCHI  沢口 純一郎
(b) Banzan TOYA  鳥谷 播山
(c) Big Stone God Pyramid  大石神ピラミッド

For photos, see
けんけんけん  (author), 大石神ピラミッド （青森県新郷村　観光名所）. May 31, 2006.
http://rover.seesaa.net/article/18626019.html
(Photo 2 shows that in front of a boulder or two is a plaque of white background with blue kanji characters headlined "大石神."

(13) "Out of this constraint came 'State Shinto'—the use of the faith, with its shrines and deities, for propaganda * * * Which sheds celestial light on the discovery of Moses’ tomb at Mount Houdatsu in Ishikawa Prefecture."
(a) State Shintō  国家神道
(b) Moses’ tomb (or grave)  モーセの墓 (pronounced "mōse no haka" where Mōse rhymes with José (accents are different), a Spanish male given name)
(i) Mose can also be written as モーゼ (pronounced "mōze")
(ii) For photos, see

本城 達也 HONJŌ Tatsuya, モーゼの墓 The Tomb of Moses. Sept 30, 2009 (revised on Jan 13, 2013)
http://www.nazotoki.com/moses.html

(c) Mount Hōdatsu  宝達山
(The hō and tatsu--the "t" in latter was soften to "d" when not in the first syllable--are, respectively, Chinese pronunciations of 宝 and 達.)
(d) Ishikawa Prefecture  石川県
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_Prefecture

(14) "uch divine condescension implies that Shingo’s Christ cult has very little to do with Christianity."

condescension (n)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/condescension

(15) "But does Sawaguchi think it’s possible that Jesus was his kinsfolk? Momentarily silent, he shrugs and spreads his palms outward, as if to say, Don’t take everything you hear as gospel."

For "shrugs and spreads his palms outward," see   

António Araújo, The English must learn to shrug it off (according to Darwin, the French already do, which may prove handy). July 2, 2006 (a blog).
http://omwo.blogspot.com/2006/07 ... o-shrug-it-off.html