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Angry chief priest vandalizes neighboring business

A security camera in Osaka　Prefecture captures the chief priest of a Buddhist temple using salt to vandalize the metal shutter doors of a neighboring business:

When first questioned about the incident, the chief priest claimed that he had seen an evil spirit and was using the salt to purify the area. He eventually admitted that he had been very annoyed by the noise from the vehicles coming and going at the transport company across the street from his temple, so he had intentionally put salt on the shutters to damage them.

The transport company had been experiencing problems with rust for nearly 10 years. After having to re-paint the shutters twice in early 2008, they set up a security camera and were able to catch the chief priest in the act. The chief priest has apologized, but the head of the transport company is not satisfied. Police are in the process of preparing to file charges against the chief priest.

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22 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - January 22, 2009 at 7:33 pm

Categories: Odd / Strange Tags:

Colin

I find it funny yet sad that this made the news…
http://www.duzodesign.com Timothy

Salt? That’s a very slow process of damaging someone’s property. Why not a more direct form of vandalizing?

anon

But it’s the ninja way to do it.

Roger

If you are a Buddhist are you not a monk and not priest? I am not sure here. Nevertheless, priests/monks are ordinary people and even they can do stupid things.

The Overthinker

Priests and monks are different things.

onibaba

You got one detail wrong in your post – the location is not “in Osaka”, which to most people reading English would mean Osaka City, but in Sakai, which is a city further south but still inside Osaka *Prefecture*. I know it’s awkward when a city and a prefecture have the same name (and “Prefecture” usually looks odd in English anyway), but Sakai is definitely a separate place.
Interesting that they concealed the priest’s face and (I think) never stated the name of the temple – I’m not sure that any western news show would do that in similar circumstances.

The Overthinker

I wish they would revert back to the pre-Meiji names for prefectures. Aside from a very few, like Ishikawa and Kanagawa, most prefectures are named after their capital city (in fact with those two as well, they were named after the capital at the time).

“Prefecture” looks fine in English. Good classical Roman name. And still used in France.

Klauscore

punishment: reborn as a …. cockroach? dog’s skin parasite? one of these beetles which make balls out of cow dung? other suggestions?

Bruce Smith

Reborn as a slug living in terror of salt !

onibaba

Oh, it’s a fine word and all, it’s just that, now that the governors are elected instead of being appointed by the central government, prefectures without prefects do seem odd. And it’s not exactly a common word in English, is it?
Reviving the old provinces (not prefectures) might be fun, though. People could have huge debates, all the way to armed confrontations, about the names and the borders, and it could make for great, or at least watchable, TV.

The Overthinker

I would support this, save for some areas where it would not make sense – like Tohoku, which would be immense (Mutsu was basically all of Tohoku). And the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula would look silly.

tokyob

The best excuse in a long time “the evil spirit made me do it”. Hillarious.
kabocha

10 years? That’s a lot of salt… and a long time to be angry.
Roger

To Overthinker.

お坊さんis a monk and 牧師さん is often referred to as a priest. In a temple you have お坊さん and not 牧師さん meaning that it is a monk. No?

Or could it be that お坊さん means both Buddhist priest and Buddhist monks? I just find it a little strange to hear priest and Buddhism in the same sentence but I could be wrong here.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

The word お坊さん does not appear in the news report.

Aren’t you supposed to be Japanese?

(Just a warning: Start using “Reply to this comment” when you reply to comments or I will start deleting your comments.)

Roger

日本人は質問聞いたらいけない？The clip said 寺の住職. Which I guess means chief priest?　What is the difference between お坊さん and 住職 then? You do not call someone in a Mosque for a priest. They are called a Imam. So its strange to be calling someone in the temple for a priest. 寺の住職should be called a Temple ..?…. but not priest. Priests are in a church.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

寺の住職should be called a Temple ..?…. but not priest. Priests are in a church.

No.
The Overthinker

If you insist that “priest” cannot be used because お坊さん is “monk” any more than you can for a Muslim imam, then by the same token you cannot use “monk”. No one imagines that by referring to a Buddhist priest you are referring to a “pastor,” the literal meaning of 牧師.

Incidentally, while use in English with reference to Eastern religions is indeed a bit sloppy, mixing them up, a monk is a person who practices religious ascetism. A priest is someone who has the religious authority to perform religious rituals. These can overlap, but your typical urban temple priest is not an ascetic (anyone seen Itami Juzo’s Taxing Woman?).

住職 is not merely “priest” but “head priest.”
http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E4%BD%8F%E8%81%B7/UTF-8/?ref=sa
and
http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E4%BD%8F%E8%81%B7
for example.

If you want a uniquely “Japanese word” used in English, then try “bonze.”
Roger

Bonze is a good word. The idea that a “priest” is in a temple sounds strange. A Muslim priest is an Imam. A Jewish priest is a Rabbi so I think English needs to find a word for a Buddhist Priest.
The Overthinker

The trouble with finding a word for a Buddhist priest (which in itself I have no problem with: as you point out, we use “rabbi” and “imam” and so on) is that Buddhism is not just Japanese. What do we call the Thai priests, for example? My suggestion would be to use Sanskrit, since so much of Buddhist theology uses it anyway.

For what it is worth, I don’t see anything odd about “Buddhist priest” myself, but that may be as I am so used to it (same with Prefecture, of course).

LB

1. お坊さんis a Buddhist monk or junior priest. 住職 would specifically mean a Buddhist priest at a temple, specifically the head priest. Since there is often not much to distinguish them by appearance, it is common to refer to any male member of Buddhist laity as お坊さん. But then as a half-Japanese fluent in the language, you knew that.

2. 牧師 means Christian priest or minister. But again, as a half-Japanese fluent in the language, you knew that.

3. You would naturally not find a 牧師 in a temple, at least not working there. Perhaps if he was visiting as a tourist… Still, you are half-Japanese, yadda yadda yadda…

The Overthinker

Actually, LB, I am not sure if you mean “laity” here – that means non-clergy (to use a European term) and in any case, not ordained. Laymen, in other words. I would imagine 住職 are very ordained.

Angry chief priest vandalizes neighboring business

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