An advertisement for a shrine maiden to help with disposal of anime figures shows Shinto’s flexibility and ability to adopt. The Rocket News article below couches it in typical slanted fashion as something weird and exotic, but it’s part of a long animist tradition of pacifying the souls of dolls and other objects that have given service to their owners – needles, calligraphy pens, Daruma figures, etc.
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Shrine seeks maiden to perform memorial services for ‘deceased’ anime figures
By KK Miller, RocketNews24
Image: Flick Image: Flickr/The Lightning Photography ϟr
A job listing site in Japan is currently featuring a very interesting part-time job based in the new Akihabara Shrine that will open in April. It sounds like a pretty decent place to earn a little bit of extra pocket-money as the successful applicant can pick the schedule that works best for them, doesn’t need to have any prior experience as a shrine maiden, and need only to be ready to work with a smile on their face.
Besides sounding like one of the easiest part-time jobs in the world, there is one other tiny detail that makes the position stand out from other job opportunities Japan: the newly hired maiden will be responsible for performing memorial services for anime figures and figurines.
It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Akihabara — the land of “otaku” — should offer such a service for people’s prized possessions, but it still makes you wonder just what a memorial service for a figure would actually entail. Will they be burned to a crisp and then presented to their former owner in an urn? Will the shrine maiden stockpile the figures in the back, only to resell them at a later date? Could the memorial service cost more than the figure itself? So many questions!
The Akihabara Shrine hopes to become another landmark of legend within the bustle of Electric Town and they’re betting on the shrine maiden being a key part of their image. You can apply for this job here until the end of March, or visit them yourself when it opens in mid-April.
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