This is an astonishing indication that appears on route 454 when crossing Shingō, a small mountain village in the department of Aomori, in northern Japan. “Tomb of Christ”, indicates a sign indicating the direction to follow. It leads to a wooded eminence away from the road, which stands opposite two mounds of earth dominated by large crosses of gray wood. One would be the tomb of Christ, the other would house relics: the ear of Isukiri, presumed brother of Jesus, and a lock of hair from the Virgin Mary.
Since Christ is generally considered to be buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the case could be a miracle, a diabolical plot or, more simply, a deception. To elucidate it, you have to go to the museum built overhanging the tomb. After passing the shop selling mugs and other multicolored t-shirts, the visitor learns that the “discovery” of the tomb dates back to the 1930s. At that time, the village chief of Herai, former name of Shingō, called on the painter nationalist Toya Banzan (1876-1966) to conduct a study to include the village in the nearby Lake Towada National Park.
However, said Toya was fascinated by texts that were very popular at the time in ultranationalist circles, called “Takeuchi manuscripts”. They were documents written on buckskin, in a strange handwriting, which Kiyomaro Takeuchi (1875-1965), the founder of the Amatsu Ontake-kyô sect – inspired by the Shinto cult – claimed to have inherited from his family. According to Kiyomaro Takeuchi, himself a native of Aomori prefecture, these manuscripts dated back three thousand five hundred years. They told the secret history of Japan before the reign of the legendary Emperor Jinmu (711-585 BC).
Brother crucified in his place
According to these documents, destroyed in 1945 during the American bombardments on Tokyo, Buddha, Confucius, Mencius or Moses would all have undergone religious training in Japan. At a time of propaganda for a supposed Japanese superiority, “these manuscripts wanted to show that Japan was at the cultural roots of China and the West”, observes Ryosuke Okamoto, a researcher at Hokkaido University.
Christ would have made two stays in Japan. The first in Etchū Province, now Toyama Prefecture (in central Japan). He is said to have studied the local deities before returning to Palestine, where he spoke of Japan to John the Baptist and his followers. The manuscripts do not say if this is why Judas betrayed him. They just explain that he would have escaped the crucifixion by being replaced by his brother, Isukiri. Then he would have fled to Japan with Isukiri’s ear and a wick of the Virgin Mary. He would have crossed Siberia on foot to Alaska. At the end of a journey of four years, he would have arrived by boat at Hachinohe (in the northeast of Japan), before reaching Shingō.
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