Religion in Japan

(A Niō statue at Sensō-ji, a famous Buddhist temple in Asakusa, Tokyo.)

During spring break I spent a few nights in Tokyo with some Gaidai friends. We stayed in Asakusa, which is home to Sensō-ji, one of Japan's most famous Buddhist temples. Since we had to walk through Sensō-ji on a daily basis, I was able to see who gathered on what days and when. During the week there were large crowds of mostly Japanese people who seemed more concerned with shopping than worship. About 1/3 of them enter the temple and prayed, while about 3/4 of them shopped and took pictures. At first I wondered if any of them would call themselves Buddhist, and then I thought about Notre Dame de Paris. I'm sure plenty of catholics visit Notre Dame in a similar fashion, but I don't feel I have the authority to make such a judgement, let alone such a comparison.

(A group of men performing the March 18th golden dragon dance at Sensō-ji.)

One of the more exciting sights I saw at Sensō-ji was the golden dragon festival celebrating the origin of the temple. Held annually on March 18th, the festival starts with a small parade up to the temple and under the Hōzōmon (inner gate), and then a dragon dance just outside of the temple. It seemed as though not many people knew about the festival until it began, so it was hard for me to judge whether or not anyone had come to Sensō-ji that day to celebrate the temple's origins. Regardless, everyone was entranced by the parade and the dance itself, but who wouldn't be amazed at such a spectacle? Unfortunately, it seems as though most of my observations at Sensō-ji are inconclusive in terms of whether or not they are descriptive of religion in Japan.

(These are the lamps from the background of the previous picture. They set them up a few days before the 18th, and kept them lit the night of.)

(More people than usual stopped to inhale incense on the day of the dragon dance. Is it possible that the dance brought more religious people out? Or maybe the dance made them all feel particularly religious?)

And now it comes down to the song. I wanted something relevant to this week's topic, and the best I could come up with was Out In The Streets by The Shangri-Las. Get it?