Japan, in Shinmezan, faces religions to understand each other

Guglielmo Gallone – Vatican Ciudad

Wrapped in lush forests on Kyushu Island, one of the four main islands in the southwest of the Japanese archipelago, in the town of Hipura or “dragon -free”, there is a place where religions face to confirm themselves, but to understand each other. Shinmeizan, which means in Japanese a “real life mountain”. It is a center of spirituality and interfaith dialogue that was born in 1987 of the common dream of Catholic missionaries, the father of Javeriano Franco Sottocornola, Buddhist monk, TAIYU Furukawa, to create a “Christian branch” of the temple Sementizan-Cchweitzzer.

Yes, a place to pray, but above all the space for coexistence between confessions, where Christian life is intertwined with Japanese spirituality, in a daily dialogue where the Bible becomes a secret presence, able to dialogue deeply with pregnancy and Buddhism. This occurs thanks to the commitment of a small community consisting of Father Claudio Codenotti, Javieriano and the current director, Father Petro Sonoda Yoshiaki, Franciscan, Japanese, Father Franco and Maria de Georgi, Mashchair Javiera. They all live and work in Xinimizan, where they meet with monks, priests, pilgrims and locals.

Dialogue with the world of Cityst

In the first place, with the world of Shinto because, according to Father Franco, the Vatican media, “Xinoi is the spirit of the Japanese people. It is a complete spiritual spirit. It does not contain a sacred book, no laws, and does not enter into living with harmony.

Nevertheless, Father Franco indicates how many similarities are between Chinto and Christianity.

“The first book written in the Japanese language, which dates back to 720, displays the beginning of the world in terms of formation, and it tells the creation of heaven and earth. According to this view, everything comes from the gods: nature, the eight islands of Japan, the Japanese people themselves. It is the reason that our temples are always surrounded by. In the open air, they look east in the morning and to the west in the afternoon, after the rhythm of the sun.

How Japan changes

An easy task in a country where Christians do not represent more than 2 % of the population today and have been persecuted for centuries. “I arrived in Japan in 1978,” Father Franco told us, “in recent decades, I have seen some deep phenomena that have changed in the examination of the examination. Shinrichō, religion seems to be something suspicious.

Young people are away, not controversial, but by lack of attention. It is a phenomenon called Shukyo Banare. Finally, globalization, which provides a “different” culture of Japanese: technology, life methods, consumption … even Kimono is used only for celebrations. Traditional culture fades. “

However, according to Father Franco, not everything is lost because “there is fixed that I am very admired by the Japanese: its extraordinary ability to peaceful coexistence. Harmony (WA) is the basis of social psychology. Here, strikes are very rare, conflicts are avoided with discipline, and the individual is greeting collective good.

The relationship with the Buddhists

More than the world of Systa, Maria de Georgi reminds us of how the main dialogue in Shinmezan, especially with the Buddhist world, which has deep roots in Japan: “Although he arrived in the seventh century through China and Korea, it was not even two times and administrative centuries, in the Kamakura period, when the body became physical.” In our center, we find monks and nuns of these traditions.

It is a life dialogue, made of friendship, confidence and common path. We have collaborated with the esteemed Tairyu Furukawa, with the temples of Saga Governorate, with the communities of Tendai and Zen. There are also mobile stories, such as the story of the Buddhist nun, which, before his death, requested to bring us ashes. “

The meaning of dialogue between religions in Shinmezan

Here the true meaning of the concept of dialogue between religions arises: “The key is always the dialogue of life”, as it continues with Georgi, that is, the original personal relationships that we welcomed groups of Buddhist Buddhists who asked us: “What does the Catholic Church learn about the dialogue?” We had monthly online meetings during Covid to study Loota Sutra and the Bible with Nichiren Buddhist monks.