Willchiko Florian at Ueno Tenmangu in Nagoya (photographer unknown)
OPENING UP
One of the burning issues of contemporary Shinto is insularity versus internationalisation. Is Shinto a religion of and for the Japanese? Is it, as many maintain, not even a religion at all but synonymous with Japanese lifestyle? While organisations like the Assocation of Shrines and ISF (International Shinto Foundation) press for greater understanding of Shinto internationally, they are ambivalent about the spread to non-Japanese.
This is what makes the achievement of Willchiko Florian so remarkable. Though Green Shinto heard of him some time ago, we were reluctant to broadcast his story since the young Austrian wished to keep a low profile. Consequently information about him is hard to come by.
From what can be gathered, he’s about 23 years of age. As a child he was struck by a photo of shrine priests in one of his father’s books. The fascination led him to pursue the matter further, particularly though the English homepage of Ueno Tenmangu Shrine in Nagoya (a very recommendable resource). His many questions impressed one of the priests there, Hirata sensei, and over six years they developed a master-pupil relationship.
In 2001 Florian visited Japan for the first time with his father, when he was in his early teens. Six years later, at Hirata sensei’s suggestion, he took up the opportunity of an apprenticeship at Tenmangu and was able to pass the practical test. Thereafter he was able to take and pass the official Jinja Honcho examinations and gain a nationally accepted priest’s license. It was an historical moment, for he was the first non-Japanese ever to do so.
How exactly he managed all this while also graduating from Vienna University is unclear – so anyone in the know, please enlighten us. It’s not clear either what Florian is planning to do with his priest’s licence, though rumour has it that he has returned to Austria.
So if Willchiko Florian is reading this, maybe he could get in touch and tell us his story so that others could follow in his footsteps. Reluctant though he might be, he’s a hero of our times.
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Click for outreach by Ueno Tenmangu.
For Ueno Tenmangu as a Nagoya power spot, click here.
If he’s gone back to Austria, it was very recent. He reviewed one of the two texts for the Jinja Kentei in Jinja Shinpo, the near-official newspaper of Jinja Honcho (I know you know that, John) at the end of March, and his affiliation was listed as Gon-negi at Ueno Tenmangu. According to the opening of his review, he was just finishing the one year training course at Kokugakuin, which I think leads to Seikai qualification. (Or, possibly, the first year of the two-year course, which leads to Meikai.) I don’t know any more than what was published in the newspaper, however.
Thanks for that, David… it was just a rumour abut the return to Austria, but from what you write it seems more likely he’s still at Ueno Tenmangu… perhaps someone will write in who knows more…