NotCliche

If Hanyuu was there, they would probably have even more success than success!

Finding girls in meido cosplay is not really a common thing in the temples of Japan, but it seems that we might very well see them happening all over Japan pretty soon, as a single temple had achieved success through the usage of moe characters to attract visitors.

The Ryohoji temple which built in the late 16th century in Hachioji, Tokyo had recently put up a colorful and manga-inspired banner of some sorts since June this year to attract visitors. And it’s a great success, according to the chief monk of the temple. Apparently, visitors had soared to about 30 during the week since the introduction of the banner. Previously, the temple would see nearly no visitors.

The amount of visitors went up and most noticeably, visits from the young men grouping were the most.

Not only did the banner help to bring in more visitors, it has also prompted the temple to set up a temporary cafe in a tent on weekends only. These cafes are staffed by girls sporting classic frills which are more or less a cosplay of the maids that we see commonly in animes and mangas these days. Some of them even fashioned themselves out as nekomimi with their cat hairband! One of the maid staff there had said that it’s good that more young people are coming to the temple, and it was a pretty fun experience to be working at such an environment.

One interviewed male had said that he was pretty surprised when he saw the temple on the internet, saying that the temple’s offerings has been the talk of the internet and this somewhat drove him to the temple out of curiosity. According to him, he believes that this kind of activity would bring in more visitors for the temple.

The meido-sans standing beside the banner for the temple.

However, some of older people would think that this is quite inappropriate, but according to the chief monk, Shoko Nakazato, he believes that the method employed to attract more visitors is justified.

“I’m a manga generation who grew up watching them on television. I have little resistance to manga…. I wanted to tell the people that temples are a fun place to visit.”

The manga characters, drawn by Toromi, who goes by one name and is a common sight in Akihabara had been pleasantly surprised when the characters she drew had brought in many visitors. She had also donned on a red-and-white costume inspired by a goddess worshipped at the temple.

Not only that, the temple itself is actually selling some cards which the manga characters imprinted on it. These cards costs about 500 yen and will allow buyers to download a 3 minutes clip of the chief monk doing some chanting. Great way to promote the temple and still earn money to offset the cafe, don’t you think?

However, one would really have to wonder what direction the temples of Japan are going. I mean, the only way to motivate young people to go to a temple is to use manga or anime characters? I’m pretty speechless on that…

Via: AFP.

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