The Ones Who Neither See Nor Hear

At almost 44 feet tall and weighing 121 tons, the giant statue of Buddha was a sight to behold. Towering above the surrounding trees and temple structure, many tourists, both foreign and local Japanese, paid their fee of several hundred yen to see the 750-year-old ancient Buddhist structure. The statue is hollow, and both worshippers and tourists alike can pay a small fee to go inside the statue that can neither see nor hear.

Caitlyn and I were together with a vacationing student missionary (serving in Cambodia) on an excursion to Kamakura, a city south of Yokohama that served as Japan’s capital hundreds of years ago. Hiroko, our platinum missionary, grew up in the area and was taking us to view some local religious areas to learn about Japanese religious traditions.

On our way to see Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a Shinto shrine, we unexpectedly came across a group of adults carrying a mikoshi, which is used to transport the local Shinto deities from one location to another. It took about 20 adults, both men and women, to carry the portable shrine, which was topped with a gold-colored phoenix and covered in Shinto symbolism. Ahead of this group was a man with a bullhorn, yelling a phrase to catch the attention of passersby and to keep the mikoshi carriers walking in step with one another. Behind this group was a smaller mikoshi carried by a mix of children and adults, the former who were clearly being trained to support — physically and mentally — a god that could neither see nor hear.

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu,1 originally built in 1063, is one of the main Shinto shrines in Kamakura, although it has historically served both Buddhist and Shinto purposes in times past. We climbed up the towering stairs to view the main building, where the kami, or god, is believed to reside and which houses several different mikoshi in a museum. We observed a small line of people forming, both foreign and local, offering their prayers and token offerings to the god that could neither see nor hear.

The day was an excellent way to observe local rites and worship areas for both Shinto and Buddhism, the commonly practiced religions of Japan. Yet the day was sobering. Buddhist and Shinto practices are so deeply ingrained into the culture that we hear from many that it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between traditional Japanese habits and religious ones. Although we witnessed more overt worship, other practices in Japan are not as overtly religious or not religious at all.

Please pray that the people of Japan will learn to worship the one true God who can not only see and hear but who wants to have a personal, loving relationship with each person in this country.