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It’s Pastor rock vs Buddhist monk blues in Japan

Most days, Lutheran pastor Kazuhiro Sekino preaches to his congregation in a soft voice with religious hymns playing in the background of a Tokyo church.

Most days, Lutheran pastor Kazuhiro Sekino preaches to his congregation in a soft voice with religious hymns playing in the background of a Tokyo church. But as night falls, he hits a smoky stage criss-crossed with whizzing strobe lights, shedding his pious day job in a battle of the bands against a group of Buddhist monks.

“We are rock, pastors are rock!” Sekino (36) shouts into a microphone to stir up the several hundred concert-goers.

The band, “Boxi Rocks” — the name is a play on the Japanese word for pastor — features Sekino and three other pastors. “I like Slipknot, a real hard rock band that has nine ma-sked members. I also like Metallica and Megadeth,” a soft-spoken Sekino said. “They may look demonic from the Christian church’s point of view, but they are actually shouting to fight the world’s injustice. They talk about truth, no hypocrisy.”

Monk Yoshinobu Fujioka — head shaved and wearing a dark blue kimono — hits back with an acoustic guitar offering as head of the Bozu (monk) band. “I love the Blues. I love Bob Dylan and sixties music,” said the 39-year-old. “Living a worldly life, we always get hurt by pains and suffering which make us feel small. I like to sing about that pain in a tender way.”

The unlikely pair hope their musical duels help them reach more people in a country where Buddhists far outnumber Christians.

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