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Jesus in Japan
By Phillip Wood
FATE :: December 2003

It was not Jesus Christ who died on the cross, but his younger brother, Isukiri. Jesus escaped crucifixion by fleeing to a small village in northern Japan, where he married a local woman and lived until the age of 106.

These are some of the extraordinary claims made by the residents of Herai, the village that proclaims itself to be the final resting place of Jesus. The legend originated in the 1930s when Koma Takenouchi, a Shinto priest in Ibaraki Prefecture, discovered that he was in possession of an ancient family document that had incorporated into it the last will and testament of Jesus Christ.

The Takenouchi document, written entirely in archaic Japanese, alleged Jesus not only lived in Herai but also that two graves relating to him and his family could be found in the remote village. When Takenouchi realized the immense significance of his discovery, he subsequently visited the village with Banzan Toya, a researcher in ancient Japanese history.

With the aid of Denjiro Sasaki, the village mayor, they managed to track down the graves to two mounds in the Sawaguchi family cemetery. After translating the document into modern-day Japanese, Takenouchi and Toya were able to ascertain that the mound on the right, “Juraizuka,” belonged to Jesus and the mound on the left, “Judaibo,” contained the ears of his brother, Isukiri, and a lock of hair from their mother, the Virgin Mary.

While the Bible makes no mention of what Jesus did with his life between the ages of 21 and 33, the Takenouchi document provides a detailed explanation of what Jesus was up to during these “lost years.” According to Jesus’s will, known as “The Last Testament,” he first came to Japan during the reign of the Emperor Suinin when he was 21 and spent the next 12 years under the tutelage of a distinguished Japanese priest, studying the culture and religion of Japan. Some may instantly dismiss this notion as ridiculous; however, when compared to some of the other explanations that have been put forward to explain Jesus’s whereabouts during these missing years, such as visiting Tibet or living aboard a spaceship, the idea that he came to Japan at some point during this period doesn’t seem quite so absurd.

The Last Testament tells us that after completing his studies, Jesus left Japan and returned to Judea to spread the word of God. Although devoted to preaching, Jesus never forgot about Japan and continued to speak about the “holy country” to his disciples and John the Baptist.

The story takes an even stranger turn when the details of Jesus’s return to Japan are described. The document states that after being condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, Jesus escaped to Siberia. It was his brother, Isukiri, who was crucified in his place.

After four years of suffering in Siberia, Jesus arrived at Alaska. From there, he took a boat to Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Changing his name to Daitenku Taro Jurai, Jesus eventually settled 20 miles from Hachinohe in the rice fields of Herai. During this period, he married a Japanese woman named Miyuko, and the pair were blessed with three daughters. Although no longer preaching the word of God, the “long-nosed goblin,” as he was known, spent the remainder of his life traveling extensively around Japan endeavoring to save the common man ...

Read the rest of this article in the December 2003 issue of FATE

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