添護摩祈祷 Jesus in Japan

From my journal…

Monday, 4-21-08, morning…
Woke up at 4:30 a.m. Still a little dark, but it got light fast. By 5 a.m. the sky was bright, blue above, and pink to the east.
The room we’re staying in is the second floor of Taka’s house. It’s about 8 feet wide and about 20 feet long. There’s a window in one short wall, and two wide windows in both of the long walls. At the windowless end of the room is the metal stairway that connects us to the rest of the house. Waking up our first morning in Japan, all I saw was tiled roofs around us, and in the distance industrial buildings and hi-rises. Family memorabilia and some small furniture, a queen-size bed and a wardrobe are all that’s in the room, except for our two futons.

Japan—a country of contrasts, lifestyles almost primitive in counterpoint to almost futuristic.

Where we are staying with Taka is a small neighborhood with rice paddies, vegetable gardens and small orchards interspersed. A cock is crowing in the distance as we walk down the narrow, paved lane between rice paddies to a main road.

The house is one of three around a small courtyard. Laundry (turned inside out) hangs out to dry in the sun and wind. The survivors of Yoko’s garden are clustered in a corner. Taka and his father Akira do their best to keep the little garden alive… roses, wisteria, a jade plant, and many bulb flowers… Luckily the little creatures in the garden don’t need to be fed—they’re statues…

Monday, 4-21-08, evening…
Apostle Paul writes, “For instance, pagans who never heard of the Law but are led by reason to do what the Law commands, may not actually possess the Law, but they can be said to be the Law” (Romans 2:14 Jerusalem Bible).
After our first, very full day in Japan with Taka as our guide, we both came to very much the same conclusions—Japan’s native ways are almost exactly what a society following the gospel would be like—and here is a country without Christ.

I have not seen a single Christian church, nor any sign of Christian symbolism except the Red Cross on medical buildings. Yet this people knows that “it is better to serve than be served” (cf. Mark 10:45).

So much for my journal…
I didn’t write too much in my journal while I was in Japan. Our life there was just too full. Brock shot several hours of video on every leg of our journeys, and Taka took about a thousand photos. Both of them are expert camera men, while I barely know how to take a snapshot. So, aside from manning the camera on occasion so Taka could be in some of the photos, I just absorbed the experiences we had, hoping to remember and recount them later.

This post is to draw your attention to a new blog that I hope to start, Taka’s Japan, where I will try to post as many of the photos we took along with an account of our travels in Japan.

The new blog will focus on the day to day aspects of the trip, while any spiritual musings of mine, such as this one, will appear here on Cost of Discipleship.

The kanji used in the title of this post do not translate to “Jesus in Japan,” but rather something like “May our prayers accompany, protect and refine [the departed souls]”. The on’yomi reading of the kanji is “Ten-go-ma-ki-tou”, but I’m not sure if either my translation or transliteration (based on my ancient Japanese dictionary) is correct. If any Japanese Buddhist visits my blog, please correct me.

This phrase is printed on a wooden votive tablet I bought at Koshouji Temple in Nagoya, where our best friend Taka’s mother’s ashes are interred.

On the first day of our visit to Taka’s Japan, we got up early, had breakfast, kohii, pan and yogurt, at a coffeehouse nearby, and then headed over to pay our respects and visit Yoko’s grave.

Taka tidied up the monument and offered a bundle of incense. After that we witnessed the 8 o’clock service at the temple, where the abbot and about seven or eight monks rhythmically chanted their prayers.


What do I mean by Jesus in Japan?

Well, again forgive my impertinence, but I know that Jesus is walking among the Japanese people, He’s in Japan, as alive as He is everywhere else, and looking for His lost sheep.
Chances are, He has as many people walking with Him in Japan as He has in America, a “Christian” country, even though I never saw more than maybe three or four church buildings the whole time I was there.
Maybe that’s a good thing, too.
Jesus has a better chance of being accepted and followed in a land largely unaffected by institutional Christianity.
And if God grants me this, I too want to follow Jesus in Japan.

And many of those who are following Jesus are doing it without even seeing His face!
Let me tell you more…

Taka’s mother, Yoko, reposed (passed away) about 2 years ago. The story of this remarkable woman and the effect she has had on her four sons, especially Taka, is amazing. Without being “Christians,” this family has not only Christian virtue and integrity, but also many signs of God’s providence in their lives.

Though prayers are offered by the Buddhist abbot and monks of Koshouji, the dead are not rescued or liberated from hell by Buddha, but by Jesus Christ. We cannot say for sure what becomes of those virtuous souls that went to the land of the dead without knowing Christ. But neither can we say for sure that they did not know Christ—how else could their lives have been filled with His strength, were they not in some way acknowledging Him?

As I said, there are many things about this remarkable woman, Yoko, that show God’s hand on her life. I only met her briefly when she visited him here in America a few years ago, and she didn’t speak English. But to Whom was she praying when, as Taka related, she prayed for the defeat of Japan in World War II? And for Whom did she suffer imprisonment and abuse by her own people, when she refused to support the war effort? And why did God spare her and her mother and their home when everything around them, including the bomb shelter in their neighborhood was destroyed. (Their neighbors told them to leave their home and come to the shelter, but they refused, saying that their lives were in God’s hands.) That night, their neighborhood was leveled, including the bomb shelter, and their house alone survived. Taka’s mother had severe burns, but she survived the war. We saw the house, which still stands, surrounded by modern buildings. And her spiritual legacy lives on in Taka, in his father and brothers.
May her memory be eternal.

Yes, Jesus is in Japan.
Let’s help Him reveal Himself to His new people.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Romans 10:14-15 NIV

Kami wa go jibun no hitori ko o ataeru hodoni yo o aisaretakarada. Sore wa, kare o shinjiru mono gamina horobiru kotonaku, eien no inochi o motsutameda.