Fukuoka, Buddhist music discos to attract faithful to temple

In the western part of the country, some places of worship use dance classes to convince people to meet. A way to "become places of social aggregation".

Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Buddhist temples in western Japan use 80s disco music and dance classes to attract young people. The purpose, explain the religious, is to regain young people's trust and restore the vision of the places of worship as places of social gathering.

The Kosenji temple, in the central Fukuoka region, recently installed a "disco globe" similar to those of American discos: thanks to this instrument, a club-like atmosphere was created in the temple. The purpose - says the head of the temple Koji Jo - is to make the place of worship similar to a place "useful for the secular life".

Things, explains Jo, "are different from when people came to the temple to learn how to write. Today nobody comes here unless there is a funeral or ritual ceremony in memory of something ". Today instead "the young women who come to the temple clap their hands to pray, and then join a disco dance lesson under the globe lights".

The Bodaiji temple, also in Fukuoka, uses stars to attract new visitors. After buying a top of the range projector, more than a thousand people joined together to take astrology lessons. According to Mitsuhiko Akita, head of the temple, "places of worship have the potential to become places of social aggregation. We must not be transitory, but places where people gather and share their vision of the world ".

• japan
• religion
• buddhism
• secularization
• modernity
• disco
• planetarium
• youth