From tap dancing to rapping to temple taverns, Buddhism is gettin’ busy by gettin’ jiggy with pop culture to bridge the gap between the ancient religion and Japanese youth culture.
Who needs chanting when you can rap Buddha’s teaching? Mr. Happiness aka Buddhist priest Kansho Tagai claims his sermons in the form of street rapping have helped double attendance at his temple.
In Tokyo, two Buddhist bars with monk mixologists are all the rage: Vow’s Arakicho and Vow’s Nakano. Members of the liberal True Pure Land Buddhist school run these establishments and offer spiritual advice while serving up drinks such as Heaven and Hell or Burning Hell.
The bars are like mini temples complete with bare-foot, shaven-head, be-robed bartenders, burning incense, mandala sacred posters, chanting and religious altars, only there are no sermons.
According to head monk Gugan Taguchi keeping the message focused on helpful advice without preaching is key, “Here at the bar, they don’t like my sermons — they walk out.”
Sounds like a combination made in heaven on earth to me: cocktails and counseling! I hope these Japanese monks start doing missionary work by taking their liquid gospel on the road and setting up a temple tavern near me.
Photos used courtesy of Vow’s Bar.