Summer Trip Part 4: Tenri

(continued from part 3)

Tenri City is located in Nara Prefecture about 15 minutes train ride south of Nara City. While other cities like Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara are immensely popular tourist attractions, Tenri City is mostly unknown and foreigner sightings are rare. The main reason is that Tenri is a city that exists for only one real purpose: to be the head branch of the Tenrikyou religious sect.

Tenrikyou 天理教 is a monotheistic religion founded in the mid-19th century and is one of the largest and oldest of the Japanese shinshuukyou 新宗教, or "new religious movements" started within the last 2 decades. In a nutshell, they believe that the spirit of God possessed the body of their religious leader, Miki Nakayama, in 1838 and began to spread God's word ever since. Their basic philosophy is that everything in the world is something borrowed from God, and only your living conscience belongs to you. They believe in reincarnation, but their main goal is to live a "joyous life" by having a soul rid of sins, or in their case "dusts". These dusts are characterized as greed, anger, hatred, selfishness, and arrogance, and they must be wiped away through acts of charity and through performance of a bi-daily chanting and musical routine where they ask forgiveness from their God.

Religion aside, their way of life simply makes them very nice people to be around. When I moved here to Japan, I noticed that across the street from my apartment was a temple of sorts. I wasn't really entirely sure what it was, but another ALT knew the family living there (the Yasuno family) well enough to chat with them. I wasn't entirely sure at first, since I despise religious indoctrination, but I joined them for a fun Sports Day at Maeda Arena involving all the Tenrikyou branches from Tohoku. I also found out that one of my students is a Tenrikyou member as well.

When I asked some people if they knew about the Tenrikyou temple, several people replied with, "oh, you mean the cult?" It's a bit of a sad misunderstanding, but there is a historical reason behind it. Back in 1995, a religious group called Aum Shinrikyou staged a sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system. Many people were killed and even more were left permanently injured. Aum Shinrikyou, though classified as a Shinshuukyou like Tenrikyou, had a much more radical and violent doctrine. After the incident, the government began to crack down on religious freedoms involving Shinshuukyou, even though the category is very broad. Also, the public began to view all Shinshuukyou as fearsome cults all because one radical branch unrelated to any of the other new religions decided it wanted to hurt a bunch of people. Basically, public ignorance has led people to fear innocent strangers.

Later, when the ALT that introduced me to my neighbors passed away due to sudden heart failure, I was the one to deliver the somber message. It turns out that said ALT took a trip with the Tenrikyou family to Kansai for a summer, bringing his parents along with him. The two families managed to get in touch with each other again with contact info I exchanged, and it was nice to know that I helped bring them back together. Several years after he made the journey, my neighbors asked me to go to Kansai with them.

Kristin and I arrived in Tenri station late in the afternoon. My neighbor came to pick us up and drove us the short 5 minutes to their guest house. Their family roots in the city are extensive, and this particular guest house is run and operated by his uncle specifically for visiting followers of Tenrikyou. Staying here was dirt cheap and meals were provided as well.

Tenri is easily identified by their main buildings, all designed with the same architecture.

We said hello and introduced ourselves to the guest house owners before moving our luggage in. We were given a massive 12-tatami mat room, which is probably big enough to sleep 8 people. Later, this came in handy because of the number of kids that barged in to play with us.

The main reason the Yasunos, along with every other Tenrikyou branch in the world, came to Kansai was because of an event called おぢばがえり odjibagaeri. Every summer, the youth and children pay a visit to the head branch for a bunch of activities and celebrations. The younger kids get to play around and have fun with a bunch of shows, games, pool days, and parades. The older kids, dressed in something like boy scout uniforms, run assistance operations directing people around and serving cold tea in the sweltering heat. It's mostly a lot of fun with a little bit of learning added in.

The reason why the Yasunos asked me to come with them was because their family has six kids. Since Mr. Yasuno was busy with Tenrikyou work for most of the day, that left Mrs. Yasuno alone to deal with the 4 smallest kids plus the oldest daughter's 2 friends plus a friend's little girl (the 2 oldest boys and the little girl's big sister were away with the "scouts"). With Kristin and I there to help her out, Mrs. Yasuno wouldn't have such a hard time taking care of the kids.

At the main temple with the 4 + 2 + 1

The kids have met me and Kristin before when we came over to their house for dinner. Whenever I see them playing in their spacious courtyard, we always say hi and chat or play for a bit. They were pretty shy around Kristin at first, but they soon warmed up to her, dragging her around and giving her funny nicknames. We had a good scheme worked out: I was bad cop (big, scary, creepy, and always "it" - called "the demon" in Japan - during tag), and Kristin was the good cop (cute, gentle, protecting them from scary Ryan).

Everybody loves Kristin!

For the entire time we were in Tenri, we basically followed them around, making sure all the kids were together and safe among the masses of other visiting Tenrikyou followers and their kids. We went to the main temple for service, watched shows including marching bands and a bmx rider, went shopping, learned how to play the ritual instruments, and went swimming. Mrs. Yasuno and her friend (who brought along one more kid) didn't want to go into the pools, so Kristin and I were on lifeguard duty while swimming and splashing around. I was also the "naked police" to make sure the boys didn't get lost or lose their stuff while in the changing rooms. Even back at the guest house, we were eating watermelon together, playing hide and seek, and wrestling about in our spacious room. Babysitting may seem tiring, but the Yasuno kids are energetic and adorable, so it was a lot of fun.

The babysat

It was a shame we had to leave a few days early to go back to work. Everyone had been so nice to us, and the kids looked really sad when we said goodbye. That's alright though, since they live very close by even back in Aomori. Maybe I'll be back in Tenri for another summer, but who knows?

Out of the 4 days in Tenri, we took one day off to travel to the nearby Nara City. Next time, I'll show you our trip to see the Nara deer! Shikaaaaa~~