Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Buddhist Christmas Tree?


All those tchotchkes they give out in temples, both foreign and domestic make great ornaments anyway. The one above is from Koufuji (興福寺). My wife would worry that it would "offend Christians," but of course a Christmas tree's not exactly a "Christian" symbol anyway, right? I mean the Christian symbol would be, uh...a cross, right? Anyway, there's also Chinese and Taiwanese temples on our tree, so to speak. But I kind of like the fact that the Fujiwaras put up a temple, and we got a Christmas ornament out of the deal, despite the fact that the Shouwa (昭和) emperor's actions in WWII were less than exemplary.



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