Japanese Shrine a Holy Place for Anime Fans

From the Wall Street Journal:
WASHIMIYA, Japan — For many years, Washinomiya Shrine has been a quiet place of worship, attracting just a trickle of sightseers to this sleepy town outside Tokyo. Then last summer, priests started noticing a new kind of visitor.

Young men, some clad in miniskirts, stockings and pastel-colored wigs, were lining up for photos at the shrine’s vermilion gate. Over the big New Year’s holiday in January, nearly 300,000 such visitors — almost 10 times the town’s population — showed up, scores of them clad in outfits resembling schoolgirl uniforms.

What brought these men to such a remote, sober location – and in such “scandalous” attire?

Their shared love for a Japanese animated series (or anime) called “Lucky Star”–which features many scenes at or near the temple, or inspired by other places in Washimiya, a small town of only around 3,000 people.

Anime, a $1.75 billion USD industry in Japan, may be Japan’s biggest cultural export, and though if you are reading this, you may be in the US, Canada, or India, chances are you’ve heard something about it.

“For us, this is a holy site,” declared a young man named Shigeki Ito, strolling through the shrine one recent weekend in a wig of blue tresses, a red-and-white schoolgirl uniform and dark knee socks.

This is one of the most interesting lines in the whole Wall Street Journal article to me — for the dual meaning “holy” could have in this context.  Though I can’t say exactly how Ito meant it, this holy place has become an intersection between worlds and cultures.  That of the “sacred” and traditional Shinto belief, and that of near-religious reverence for the nearly all-female cast of characters in “Lucky Star”, whose attitudes and behavior probably set them apart from any notions one might have of “traditional” Japanese women.

Not to mention that it seems to be just a bit more socially acceptable for men in Japan to dress up as women should the right occasion strike.  (Compared to men in the US.)  Though this is probably up for debate – and one might argue that they are less dressing up as women and more as characters…

As for the residents of this small, once quiet town?  Some were initially “spooked” at the sudden mass deluge of costumed men.  Many soon realized the business possibilities of hundreds of new potential customers though, and began manufacturing snacks, trinkets and costumes inspired by the series.

Local officials even offered up honorary town residence to all the fictional “Lucky Star” characters.  Might sound zany to some, but makes plenty of business sense to me!

In all, this whole phenomenon may be no less “bizarre” than the tours in NYC that have folks lining up to see the diner from Seinfeld or visit with the man who inspired the show’s character Cosmo Kramer.  Or maybe even those tours of Beverly Hills which feature driving by the homes of various celebs (most of which are probably never actually there).

At any rate, I find anime and Japanese popular culture quite entertaining – both as a fan and from a slightly more “academic” perspective.  (I even did my Bachelors honor thesis on anime fandom in the US.)  ^_^    I cannot claim an objective point of view.

For the entire WSJ article click here.