Japanese people usually say that they are without religion.
Many Japanese people get married in a church and celebrate christmas with loved ones, but at funerals, they get a monk to recite sutras. During the first few days of the New Year, the second most popular place to visit is here, at Narita-san Shinshō-ji Temple. Number one is Meiji-Jingu Shrine in Tokyo. Temples are sites of Buddhism and shrines are sites of Shintoism. For one holiday the religions are all jumbled together. So, one doesn’t really know what they believe religiously and might say that they are “without religion”. However, as they say this, they might also be thinking “Dare I say that I’m Buddhist?”

Let’s start with a photo. In the first three days of the New Year, over three million people visit Shinshō-ji Temple. Despite the fact that Japanese people are “irreligious”, then why do they come to this temple? Long ago, there was a custom to pray to gods or buddhas when the guarantee of a plentiful harvest or sound health was out of one’s own hands. To the commoners, there was no difference between the gods of shrines or the buddhas of temples, they were both thought to transcend human abilities. But, in the age of modern science, there are other ways to deal with such problems besides praying, which lead people to stray further away from religion. This phenomenon is most likely not unique to Japan as a country either.

However, the New Year is an exception. In order to look back on the old year and face the new, many Japanese people visit this temple. By doing so, they feel that they come face-to-face with a god or buddha. Traces of this old tradition continue to live on within their lives like an appendix that has been removed or an estranged parent.

You might say it isn’t that Japanese people are not religious, but rather that they unconsciously are. Buddhism is melded into the corners of the way of life here. Even though Buddhism as a practice is fading from the conscious today, the temples of old exist as their founders designed them 300 years ago. It could be said that you can walk the same path as those from the Edo period and relive the stories behind them.

Many temples were originally created to protect the principal buddha statue from rain and wind. In those days, people didn’t go to the temple because the building was interesting, they went to see the image of buddha. In Shinshō-ji’s case, there is a buddha statue by the name of Budōmyō’ō, or king which does not move (“Acala" in Sanskrit). You can say that the purpose of this excursion is to go meet Budōmyō’ō, the principal object of worship at Shinshō-ji. So, what kind of buddha is Budōmyō’ō?

In order to know his story, first you must know the history behind the construction of Narita-san Shinshō-ji Temple. Please use the time remaining on your ride to Narita Station to read “Column 1”.