The hip-hop Buddhist monk of Japan: Kansho Tagai
The United States had its singing nuns during the early 1970’s whose rendition of the Lord’s Prayer became a big hit. China has its well-known Shaolin martial monks who travel and perform around the world. Japan now has its own religious celeb personality, a hip-hop Buddhist monk.
The head of the 400-year-old Kyoouji Temple in central Tokyo is a monk by the name of Kansho Tagai. He, because of his positive outlook, is also known in the community as Mr. Happiness or MC Happiness. He is also different from other monks. Besides chanting and praying, Kansho Tagai also raps. He’s been rapping since 2006.
This is how monk Kansho Tagai explains it:
“When I listened to rap music for the first time, it was in English so I couldn’t understand a word. I realized that the same can be said for Buddhist sutras because most people can’t understand a word. And the thing is, listening to rap music makes you feel good even though it may be incomprehensible.”
Kansho Tagai has hosted a variety of youth events at his temple, including open sessions which blend modern words and phrases with Buddhist teachings, to make the faith more relevant today. He has found a way to engage young people.
Later this month he hopes to keep them interested by breaking into a new genre — mixing Buddhist chants with tap-dancing. The tap-dancing show will feature a professional dancer moving to Tagai’s chants. After the tap-dancing, he plans to dance the samba at another performance.
Kansho Tagai’s rapping is quite good! Take a look at the following video from ITN News – Buddhist monk becomes temple-rocking rapper
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