在線下單 請日本僧侶上門做法事

SAKAI, Japan — The stubble-haired Buddhist priest lit incense at a small, cupboardlike altar just as members of his order have done for centuries. As the priest chanted sutras, Yutaka Kai closed his eyes and prayed for his wife, who died last year of complications from a knee replacement.

日本堺市——那名光頭的佛教僧侶按照他那一派的老規矩，在一個形似櫥櫃的小祭壇前焚香。在僧侶誦經時，甲斐裕（Yutaka Kai，音）閉上眼睛，爲去年死於膝關節置換手術併發症的妻子祈禱。

Kai, 68, set aside his family’s devout Buddhism when he left his rural hometown decades ago to work in a tire factory. That meant Kai did not have a local temple to turn to for the first anniversary of his wife’s death, a milestone for Japanese Buddhists.

68歲的甲斐幾十年前離開農村老家到一家輪胎廠上班時，把家族對佛教的虔誠信仰拋到了一邊。這意味着，在他的妻子去世一週年之際——對日本佛教徒來說，這是很重要的一件事——他無法求助於當地廟宇。

Cue the internet. In modern Japan, a Buddhist priest can now be found just a few mouse clicks away, on .

那就求助於互聯網吧。在現代的日本，只需點幾下鼠標，就能在上找到一位做法事的和尚。

“It’s affordable, and the price is clear,” said Kai’s eldest son, Shuichi, 40. “You don’t have to worry about how much you’re supposed to give.”

“價格不貴，而且明碼實價，”甲斐的大兒子、40歲的秀一（Shuichi，音）說。“你不必擔心錢給多或者給少。”

The priest at Kai’s memorial, Junku Soko, is part of a controversial business that is disrupting traditional funeral arrangements in Japan. In a country where regulations and powerful interests have stymied much of the so-called gig economy — Uber, for instance, is barely a blip here — a network of freelancing priests is making gains in the unlikely sphere of religion.

僧侶底均庫（Junku Soko，音）在甲斐舉辦的追悼儀式上做法事，是對日本傳統葬禮安排的顛覆，因此充滿爭議。在這個國家，法規和巨大利益阻礙了很多所謂的零工經濟——例如，Uber在這裏僅是曇花一現——但是一個自由職業僧侶網絡正不可思議地在宗教領域獲利。

Their venture is viewed by some as unseemly, and it has drawn condemnation from Buddhist leaders. An umbrella group representing Japan’s many Buddhist sects complained publicly after Amazon began offering obosan-bin — priest delivery — on its Japanese site last year, in partnership with a local startup.

在有些人看來，他們這樣做生意是不合適的，佛教領袖也對此提出譴責。在去年Amazon日本網站開始與當地一個初創公司合作提供僧侶上門服務之後，一個代表日本很多佛教派別的綜合組織進行了公開抱怨。

But the priests and their backers say they are addressing real needs. They assert that obosan-bin is helping to preserve Buddhist traditions by making them accessible to the millions of people in Japan who have become estranged from the religion.

但是，那些僧侶及其支持者稱，他們在滿足現實需要。他們認爲，僧侶上門服務通過爲上千萬與佛教疏遠的日本人提供服務而有助於保護佛教傳統。

“Temples will sell you 10 yen candles for 100 yen,” said Soko, 39. “They’re protecting their own interests.”

“寺廟會把10日元的蠟燭賣到100日元，”39歲的底說，“他們在保護自己的利益。”

Such arguments will be familiar to anyone who has watched e-commerce companies upend other parts of the economy, from book publishing to airlines, taxis and hotels.

任何觀察過電子商務企業顛覆其他經濟部門（從圖書出版到航空公司、出租車和酒店）的人都熟悉這樣的論點。

In Japan, even in areas far less sensitive than religion, newcomers often receive a chilly reception, and startups are rarer than in other, rich countries. Among the explanations are a scarcity of venture capital, the political clout wielded by established businesses and a culture that values stability over the creative destruction that drives growth in countries like the United States.

在日本，甚至在不像宗教那麼敏感的領域，新來者往往受到冷遇，這裏的初創企業比其他富裕國家要少得多。其中一些解釋包括：缺乏風險資本；現有企業具有很強的政治勢力；以及日本文化重視穩定多於創造性破壞，正是後者推動了美國等國的發展。

Yet religion may prove to be an exception. It is so opaque — and so removed from the day-to-day lives of many modern Japanese — that a little technological disruption may prove welcome.

不過，宗教可能會被證明是個例外。它非常不透明——遠離很多現代日本人的日常生活——來一點技術破壞可能會受到歡迎。

The stakes are material as well as spiritual. As with religious institutions in many other countries, temples in Japan receive generous tax breaks.

利益爭奪既有精神方面的，也有物質方面的。與很多其他國家的宗教機構一樣，日本的寺廟享有慷慨的稅收減免。

“If it becomes a fee for services instead of a donation, and the government says, ‘OK, we’re going to tax you like a regular business,’ how are we supposed to object?” said Hanyu Kakubo, a priest at the Japan Buddhist Federation, which opposes obosan-bin.

“如果它不再是捐贈，而是收取服務費的形式，那麼政府會說，‘好吧，我們會像對普通公司那樣向你們徵稅’，我們該怎麼反對？”日本佛教協會(Japan Buddhist Federation)的僧侶夏久保判由（Hanyu Kakubo，音）說。該協會反對僧侶上門服務。

As with adherents of many religions, Buddhists typically give donations to priests for their services. Proponents of obosan-bin argue that conventional temples already operate like businesses — ones that put customers at a disadvantage though murky pricing. The amount is left up to the donor, a custom that leads many to overpay, Soko said.

與很多宗教的信徒一樣，佛教徒一般爲僧侶的服務佈施。僧侶上門服務的支持者們認爲，傳統寺廟已經在像公司那樣運作了——通過模糊定價將顧客置於不利地位。底說，捐多少錢由捐款者決定，這個習俗導致很多人花錢過多。

“They don’t want to make things clear,” he said.

“他們不想讓事情透明化，”他說。

Much of the reaction in Japan to obosan-bin has been positive, for equally familiar reasons: It offers convenience and low, predictable prices.

日本人對僧侶上門服務的總體反應是正面的，因爲同樣令人熟悉的原因：它很方便，價格又低，而且價位可以預期。

“There has been fierce criticism from the Buddhist world, but these days many people are abandoning religious funerals altogether,” said Noriyuki Ueda, an anthropologist who studies Buddhism at Tokyo Institute of Technology. “At least people using obosan-bin think having a priest is necessary.”

“佛教界存在激烈的批評，不過如今，很多人完全放棄了佛教葬禮，”東京工業大學(Tokyo Institute of Technology)研究佛教的人類學家上田紀行(Noriyuki Ueda)說。“使用僧侶上門服務的人至少認爲有個僧侶是必需的。”

Kakubo of the Buddhist federation conceded that many temples had done a poor job of adapting.

日本佛教協會的夏久保也承認，很多寺廟在與時俱進方面做得很差。

“We need to reflect on the fact that we’ve created this situation where people feel that they have to turn to the internet,” he said, adding: “Are we protecting our vested interests? Yes, obviously.”

“我需要反思一個事實：目前的情況是我們自己造成的，人們覺得不得不求助於互聯網，”他說。他又表示：“我們在保護自己的既得利益嗎？顯然是。”

When Kai’s wife, Chieko, died, her funeral was held at a secular funeral parlor. But for the anniversary, Kai decided he wanted a priest.

甲斐的妻子千惠子去世時，她的葬禮在一個世俗殯儀館舉行。不過在一週年之際，甲斐想還是需要一個僧人。

“We had a big altar in the house where I grew up, but not here,” he said, gesturing around his small, tidy apartment in a public housing complex.

“我小時候家裏有個很大的祭壇，但是這兒沒有，”他指着自己位於一個公房公寓樓裏的整潔的小公寓說道。

He said he rarely thought about religion until his wife’s death. In the years after World War II, rural dwellers like Kai poured into places like Sakai, an industrial suburb of Osaka. Relatively few bothered to put down new religious roots in the city.

他說，妻子去世前，自己很少想到宗教。在“二戰”後的那些年裏，甲斐這樣的農村居民涌入堺市這樣的地方。堺市是大阪的一個郊外工業區。幾乎沒人願意在這座城市打下新的宗教根基。

Today, 70 percent of Japanese identify themselves in surveys as nonreligious or atheist though many said they still followed traditional religious customs such as going to a Shinto shrine at New Year or periodically visiting their ancestors’ graves.

如今，70%的日本人在調查中認爲自己是無信仰者或無神論者，不過很多人說，他們依然遵循一些傳統宗教習俗，比如在新年時去神社，或者定期祭拜祖先的墳墓。

Kai’s daughter-in-law found Minrevi’s website. Her only request was that the priest should belong to the order to which the Kai family had belonged in his hometown, in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku.

甲斐的兒媳發現了Minrevi網站。她唯一的要求就是這名僧人必須屬於甲斐的家族在故鄉所屬的那個派別。甲斐的故鄉是四國島愛媛縣。

Soko fit the bill. At the ceremony, which took place in Kai’s apartment, Soko delivered a short homily about faith and remembering the dead.

底符合這個條件。在甲斐的公寓裏舉行的儀式上，底發表了簡短的信仰講道，並追念死者。

The Kais seemed satisfied: They said they would request Soko for the next important death anniversary, in two years’ time.

甲斐的家人似乎很滿意：他們說會在下一次重要週年時要求底主持——也就是在兩週年時。

Soko said innovations like obosan-bin are vital to Buddhism’s survival. Most temples’ dues-paying congregations are shrinking as a result of social change and rural depopulation.

底說，僧侶上門服務這樣的創新對於佛教的生存非常重要。由於社會變遷和農村人口的減少，大部分寺廟的香火錢變少了。

Incomes are shrinking, too. Revenue at temples and other religious institutions has fallen by a third in the last 20 years, mostly because of a drop in regular donations from long-term members, according to the government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.

收入也在萎縮。據日本文化廳(Agency for Cultural Affairs)稱，在過去20年裏，寺廟和其他宗教機構的收入減少了三分之一，主要是因爲長期教徒定期捐贈的減少。

“In the seminary, they teach you to chant sutras, but they don’t tell you anything about how to manage a temple,” Soko said. “We have to try new things.”

“在佛學院，他們教你誦經，但不告訴你任何關於寺廟管理的事，”底說道。“我們不得不嘗試一些新事物。”