Lucky Star Shrine "Maidens"

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]WSJ: Popular Cartoon Series Makes Japanese Shrine a Magnet for Fans
For many years, Washinomiya Shrine has been a quiet place of worship, attracting just a trickle of sightseers to this sleepy town outside Tokyo. Then last summer, priests started noticing a new kind of visitor. Young men, some clad in miniskirts, stockings and pastel-colored wigs, were lining up for photos at the shrine's vermilion gate...Discerning fans had figured out that Washinomiya Shrine is regularly featured in "Lucky Star," a wildly popular animated comic that aired as a television series last year...Lucky Star's main characters are all female. "For us, this is a holy site," declared a young man named Shigeki Ito, strolling through the shrine one recent weekend in a wig of blue tresses, a red-and-white schoolgirl uniform and dark knee socks...At first, residents of Washimiya -- spelled differently than the shrine -- were spooked by the deluge, fearing the skirt-clad men were part of a religious cult...But it wasn't long before locals realized their unorthodox visitors could be a source of relief for a local economy...Washimiya has [generated] 42 million yen, or about $390,000, in income...from Lucky Star food and goods...more...

[Charles]

...But it wasn't long before locals realized their unorthodox visitors could be a source of relief for a local economy...Washimiya has [generated] 42 million yen, or about $390,000, in income...from Lucky Star food and goods...more...

There's an old saying, "a fool and his money are good company."

[plaid_knight]

I'm glad to see the town and the visitors get along so well. I hope this is still going on when I visit the town next year. I want to get a copy of that fan's guide to taking great Lucky Star pictures ...

[Mulboyne]

Here are some fans carrying a Lucky Star mikoshi at the local festival

[Mulboyne]

[Taro Toporific]

Enjoy?

[YT]Mx8mOLgsUqg[/YT]

[Mulboyne]

The Buddhists are also getting in on the act:



AFP: Japanese temple resorts to manga to woo visitors

Girls clad in maids' outfits are not traditionally associated with Buddhism, but that has not stopped monks at a centuries-old temple using Japanese pop culture to woo visitors. The Ryohoji temple, built in the late 16th century in a Tokyo suburb, erected a colourful manga-inspired sign at its entrance in June and has since seen visitor numbers perk up -- especially young men. But it went a step further at the weekend, setting up tents and opening up a temporary cafe staffed by bonnet-wearing girls sporting classic frills, one of the recent popular themes among fans of anime and costume role-playing. The "maids" look authentic and old-fashioned in every way -- save for the short length of the skirts and the fake cats' ears on their heads. And it seemed to work, the temple drawing hundreds of visitors on Saturday as the event coincided with a local autumn festival in Hachioji, on the western outskirts of Tokyo. "I came over because this temple has been the talk of the Net," said Mitsutaka Adachi, a 26-year-old telecom software programmer, one of many first-time visitors to the ancient temple
...more...

[Mulboyne]

The Buddhists are also getting in on the act:

Here's the Ryohoji Temple theme song:

[YThq]BKcUx2FStYE[/YThq]

And the unveiling of a moe Benten:

[YThq]-w43oVQahHs[/ythq]