A high school student of mine is into the Cospaly scene. Not from a wealthy family, she spends months of creative endeavor in costume design and before she and her boyfriend head up to Harajuku. A couple of weeks ago they made a strong point of their latest expedition, which in a Japaneasy sort of way was obviously an open invitation. What the hell I thought. I haven’t been to Yoyogi Park in so long it will be an outing. So, last Saturday morning the wife and I saddle up on our trusty Yamaha SR and headed up to the big city.
Hanging out and trying to look as cool as a ramen addict can in Yoyogi I noticed a great number of Goths running around. David Jones, Tokyonodoko.coms’s system administer had joined us with the “Anti-Christ” (a.k.a his wife) and assured me that Goth styling comes and goes. In his heyday he was an acquaintance of Siouxsie Sioux from Siouxsie and the Banshees fame. He credits Siouxsie, in an off handed sort of way, of reviving the whole Goth thing from the drugged out sixties, which they in turn presumably got from original Gothic dress. What caught my attention was a young girl uniquely dressed as nun-cum-Spiderman, no older than fifteen years old; she expertly threaded a Rosary through her fingers while mumbling darkly, until hitting the tenth bead and then announcing a few Hail Marys.
Now I am not a particularly religious person. Although recently, after a brief road trip with David Jones to Hakuba in order to visit Hypothetical Bob, I started to admit God may exist (people who come into contact with David often need a strong belief in something to survive the experience) and in fact, given the balance of evidence I couldn’t say God, in any of his/her plausible forms, doesn’t exist. This girl, a Spiderman Bandera around her mouth was doing a pretty good job at imitating the devout, but was this spiritual exploitation for gratuitous entertainment? Was this in some way sacrilegious? Anyone who has seen David’s spine chilling impression of a Buddhist monk complete with Shinto chants and mimed prayer beads would see the comparison. But then I asked myself, spiritual and intellectual wilderness that I am, what is the Rosary all about, apart from small Italian women drawing unnecessary attention to themselves on Melbourne trams?
It turns out the purpose of the Rosary is to help keep in memory certain principal events or mysteries in the history of our supposed salvation, and to thank and praise God for said theoretical salvation. The Rosary like Eastern Prayer beads used by Buddhist monks is not only a device to aid in the recall of prayers or sutras but also reveals huge amounts of contextual information connected to specific prayers. In the Rosary, there are twenty mysteries reflected upon, and these are divided into the five JOYFUL MYSTERIES, the five LUMINOUS MYSTERIES, the five SORROWFUL MYSTERIES, and the five GLORIOUS MYSTERIES. It is customary to recite five decades at a time while meditating on one set of mysteries. In cognitive psychology this is referred to as slit attention processing and few people are capable of it without practice.
Certainly the use of noted rope predates Christianity as a method to record and recall information where no written form was possible. As a solution for University exams it’s a wonder why every student doesn’t use the same techniques. First recorded in the 4th century prayer ropes were the forerunner of the Rosary. Lady Godiva refers in her will to "the circlet of precious stones which she had threaded on a cord in order that by fingering them one after another she might count her prayers exactly" (Malmesbury, "Gesta Pont.", Rolls Series 311). Pope John Paul II suggested the Joyful mysteries are said on Monday and Saturday, the Luminous on Thursday, the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, and the Glorious on Wednesday and Sunday (with this exception: Sundays of Christmas season - The Joyful; Sundays of Lent - Sorrowful). It’s a busy schedule.
I’ve listed the Luminous Mysteries, or Mysteries of light here because they seemed to me to be more uplifting than others. Yet there is a great deal of universal wisdom in these mysteries. For example, the Joyful Mysteries are concerned with Humility, Love of Neighbor (but not their wife or ox, obviously), Poverty, Loyalty and joys in finding Faith. These are concepts I don’t usually spend much time on, and have to admit wouldn’t raise with close friends. I spend most of my time thinking about my next bowl of ramen, trivial thoughts denying my confused consumerist status or meek social intercourse masquerading as friendship with people I hardly know. Fundamentally I’m unaware of their opinion about such subjects as humility. I don’t even know if they know what the word means. Maybe I’ll raise the subject the next time we all meet up at WaraWara. “Hey dud, what do you think about Humility, is it compatible with Western individualism?” I’ll ask.
Or maybe not. I’ve noticed in these socially conservative days conversation has become more lipid, with high pitched screams of “Shut up” and “Oh my God” passing for significant dialogue, where communal interaction is driven by in-group forming and ostracization, where scary and offbeat descent is the cause of identity insecurity. People are too concerned with reputation maintenance to step outside the mainstream and spend valuable mental resources on thinking. The qualities of Purity, Courage, Patience and Perseverance discussed in the Sorrowful Mysteries find no home here. Interestingly I found the Rosary in Japanese written in easy to read Kanji. Not only does it look better in Japanese, but I think it also sounds better.
By Mark Spencer
©Tokyonodoko.com2007
