As developed countries are becoming more and more secular, religious institutions are struggling to make ends meet while trying to maintain their aging facilities.

In the same way that many struggling churches and synagogues in the West are being converted into condos, co-ops or even bars and nightclubs just to somehow preserve their historic buildings, many of the small neighbourhood tera (Buddhist temples) and jinja (Shinto shrines) in Japan are also now faced with an identity crisis.

One temple in Tokyo, however, has come up with a very unconventional way of attracting the interest of the younger generation. Making strong use of moe aesthetics, i.e. that specific type of Akihabara otaku kinky-cute, they’ve gone through a marketing makeover and even launched their own Buddhist themed Role Playing Game (RPG) in the hopes of becoming a new type of pilgrimage destination.

From ASCII:

Raison D’Etre – The Ryohoji’s– The Moe Temple “Started With A Lot Of Good Luck”

Suddenly a chaotic alternative dimension appears in the middle of a peaceful Hachijoji street

There’s a “temple” at the heart of a massive wave of word of mouth fame in the blogging community which grew from a single snap contributed to cellphone picture sharing website Keitai Hyakkei. It’s Shoeizan Ryohoji Temple.

Ryohoji is a Nichiren sect Buddhist temple. When you go to visit it in the flesh, it looks like any old ordinary temple you could find anywhere from the outside. The sign at the entrance, though, has a bunch of anime-style characters all lined up in a row on it for some reason.

The sign cheerfully displays “Welcome to Ryohoji Temple!” and it feels as if you’re hallucinating that you’ve wandered into some different dimension.

If you look closely, each of the characters has their name written and they explain the sect’s different doctrines or the temple’s different facilities. On the side there are jelly-like blobs where they’ve even gone so far as to provide a QR code and set up a website you can access with your mobile phone.

When you try going on the mobile site, you can enjoy the temple’s actual facilities through the contents. The temple almost feels like a local attraction. When we talked to the head priest though, he said “I’m not very good with computers”.

So when we asked him who had set up these plans, he answered “one of the grandchildren of the temple’s patron family is very good with computers”. He introduced us to Mitsui, the “grandchild of the patron family” who planned and produced this all alongside CG author Miss Toromi who did the illustrations.

From Inside For All Gamers:

Ryohoji, The Moe Temple, Releases iOS Version of Buttamage “Welcome to Ryohoji Temple!”

Ryohoji Temple in Hachioji Tokyo, otherwise known as the ‘Moe Temple’, has released the iOS edition of a “Welcome to Ryohoji Temple!” social game for smart phones (officially known as Buttamage [roughly: Game of Buddhist Spirits]). It’s free to download.

Ryohoji Temple is called the ‘Moe Temple’ because it started putting up ‘moe signboards’ to increase interest in the temples, moe Buddhist statues and a moe music video game. “Welcome to Ryohoji Temple!” became a real topic of discussion when it attracted 50,000 users in only one week after being made public when it was released as a social application by GMO’s game platform G-Ge in November 2012.

“Welcome to Ryohoji Temple” is an RPG social card game where users go on a trip to exterminate demons with “Toro-Benten” [Benten is a female mother goddess patron of art and music] and Ryohoji’s other moe characters. In the game, there are over 800 types of cards designed after demons from all over Japan and players advance by collecting these and beating bosses by forming ‘guilds’ with other players and collaborating.

Comments from Twitter Japan:

Pals/siren/ridillさん：

I’ll grin and bear this for now. These are awful [“yabai“] objects of worship. Is this really a temple?

藤埼識さん：

A lolicon mother goddess #change-an-oger-to-lolita-and-you-make-it-cuddly Well, Ryohoji’s already done it lol

GoldenBallさん：

Japan…

There was a nuclear accident and the [Fukushima Daichii] Unit 4 too, and it feels like the world is coming to an end, what should we do……

再生の神子なすった･ぶるーねるさん：

THISwwwISwww!!!wwwLike, Ryohoji Templewwwwwplease honestly forgive mewwwww

S.Takaseさん：

Anyhow, this temple probably decides what to do by shaking the o-mikuji [a kind of fortune given out at temples], and this time it decided to introduce moe, and even though the head priest disapproved at first, well, seems they had to do what the o-mikuji said!

k0.さん：

At first I thought it was just the head priest doing whatever he wanted, but even if it had been other people instead the result would have been the same. No matter how many times I look at it though, can’t help wondering if it is just their fate to be know as Temple Stupid. [The OP is making a pun on Ryohoji by saying Ahoji, Temple Stupid]

とりたん。さん：

I’ll keep note of this [for when I go to] Hachijoji

α・アルフライラ ふたけっと9.5 ‏さん：

A moe…….. temple…….?

らせん・ざ・すくりゅう☆ ‏さん：

Auuu, you’re all wrooong. I went to this temple! Bought some doushinji there!

└(‘-‘└)└)└)＜matsuuさん：

Something to investigate, isn’t it. This is unbelievable.

あき ＠釧路さん：

Hachijoji got on to too much of a start www Changing subject but actually this temple is pretty cool. I want to go check it out!

xionchannel さん：

Go visit this temple!wwww

spanglemakerさん：

A new famous spot. They are doing pretty well for themselves in West Hachijoji.

ys-22さん：

I’m glad I’m born in Japan.

packiraraさん：

It’s fun to see how new and old culture clash and combine.

nabeさん：

Let’s go take a stroll and take pictures of this temple.

kimza/きむぞー ‏さん：

Ryohoji is very mature isn’t it w

のじけんさん：