Keihan Chronicle

In religion terms, Japan seems to enjoy a considerable degree of freedom when compared to other countries, especially those with monotheistic traditions. The fact of being a society based in animistic and polytheistic beliefs of Shinto, combined with such a flexible doctrine as Buddhism, has maybe made Japanese modern society more open minded and less dogmatic than countries with Christian or Islamic traditions, for example. Thus, the Japanese tendency to syncretism softened the taboos of mixing believes of different nature, and this is easily demonstrable by seeing how many Shinto shrines can be found inside Buddhist temples or by checking the hybrid wedding system that takes its aesthetics mainly from Christian tradition.

Even knowing this, I was amused when some time ago I saw in a Tsutaya shop a stand and several posters advertising a manga with a cover showing Buddha and Jesus Christ shoulder by shoulder, dressing in a casual way and behaving as tourists.

When thinking about the theme for this post I thought I could give it a chance and buy a copy to see what was it really about, and the result wasn't less amusing than my first impression. 聖☆おにいさん, or "Saint Young Men" by Nakamura Hikaru brings us a humoristic view of two of the most important religious figures of history changing all the context without any kind of reservation.

The initial plot is simple: Jesus and Buddha are tired of living so long in their respective paradises and decide to take a break by living in the modern Japan like two ordinary young men. They share an apartment, go shopping to the konbini, use the subway and ask themselves which cell phone should they buy among a lot of other "ordinary" activities. Their personalities are also very human and ordinary, and the only things that makes them different are they physical traits (crown of thorns, long hair and beard for Jesus, and big ear lobes, cranial protrusion and third eye). Jesus even seems proud for being mistaken for Johnny Depp by a group of schoolgirls, while some mistake Buddha's hairstyle for a punch perm. Typical traits attributed to these characters, like patience or generosity are also continuously parodied in this manga.


While such a harmless work would be probably criticized and condemned by a number of religious authorities for being blasphemic, in Japan it appears as one more product with no more aim than amusing the young readers who, like most of the Japanese, don't really care about religion. No one cares if the main character of a comedy manga is based on Jesus, Lenin, Schwarzenegger or Mickey Mouse, because all is about aesthetics. However, Japan's tendency to break taboos, even being more clear than in most of western countries, still finds difficulties in some national subjects like the Imperial Family, remaining still now as one of the more strong cultural taboos of contemporary Japan.

聖☆おにいさん is published by Kodansha under the label Morning KC with 4 volumes at the moment, enjoying a considerable popularity, having printed 13 editions of its first number since its publication in January 2008.

A scanned and translated version of the manga can be read here:

http://www.onemanga.com/Saint_Young_Men/

When walking along the street anyone finds some magazine stand with something like "Take for Free" written on it, it is natural to take a glance, especially when the covers have an eye-catching design featuring something like cute looking girls.

Last weekend I was walking near the Tôji temple in Kyoto when I found one of these stands. Without paying much attention, I took a couple of magazines out of curiosity, since some of their names (like "Collon") sounded just funny. When I took a few steps away I noticed the "18" symbol in the cover. "That's strange..." I thought, "Wait, porn for free in the street!?" that's impossible...


Out of prudence I waited to get home to take a look (they were wrapped with plastic) to see what the hell were they about, and I finally understood. One of the magazines stated "Superwork-magazine Collon for girls" as a clue. Then, a quick look was enough to know that the content of these magazines (almost the same in both) was mainly about job offers in all kind of night clubs ranging from waitresses to almost prostitution, but mainly focusing to the hostess world as depicted in the descriptions below.

Besides of the nature of these jobs, what made me think the most was the easy access to this kind of publication. I found these copies in a quiet street in Kyoto, but then I saw more in some different places, among which was a small bookshop near to the Gaidai campus. This may lead to think how many young women and students choose this way to cover their expenses and to what extent is this good for the society.

A parallel can be drawn between hostess clubs and pachinko parlors. Even though the latter are more numerous, both have an important presence in adult entertainment in Japan and both challenge the legal bounds, since gambling as well as prostitution are forbidden by law. Beyond the moral discussion that this subject can lead to, I think that the most important thing to be taken into account is the position that Japanese society and its main powers adopt towards this tendency in the entertainment world. Does it help people (workers and costumers) to fulfill their needs and hopes, or rather make them get inside a spyral of dispair as it was depicted in the aforementioned documentary? This certainly needs lots of discussion that a single blog post can't provide...