Japan’s Coolest Pastor Moonlights As A Rock Star
His Lutheran hard rock band, Boxi Rocks, draws hundreds.
Religious duel in Japan: Pastor rock vs. Buddhist monk blues https://t.co/AFK0EVnG1A pic.twitter.com/ZZvAe2xvag
— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 25, 2016
Pastor Kazuhiro Sekino is used to working a crowd, preaching daily at his Lutheran church in Tokyo. At night, though, he spreads the good word in a different way—through shredded vocals and Metallica-worthy riffs, reports Agence France-Presse.
Sekino and three other pastors make up Boxi Rocks, Japan’s premiere Lutheran hard rock band. Inspired equally by God and Slipknot, they wear leather jackets over their robes, crowd-surf, and preach truth through a microphone.
Sekino started Boxi Rocks in 2013, and the band now draws crowds that reach into the hundreds. He often joins forces with Yoshinobu Fujioka, a blues-loving Buddhist monk who channels Dylan and, he tells AFP, likes to “sing about pain in a tender way.” Fujioka also runs a Tokyo cocktail bar, where he encourages patrons to talk about their problems.
“It’s an incorrect stereotype that monks have to be quiet all the time,” Fujioka says.
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