February 8, 2010
Source: Reuters
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE6173CZ20100208
He raps. He chants. And this month, Japan's famed hip-hop loving monk, better known as MC Happiness, will tap dance on stage, in the name of Buddhism.
Kansho Tagai heads the 400-year-old Kyoouji Temple in central Tokyo, offering softly chanted prayers throughout the day amid traditional bell chimes and wafts of incense.
But once in a while, he raises the volume, and the tempo, of these prayers, going before an audience to rap Buddhist sutra, or teachings, to hip hop beats and in modern Japanese.
"When I listened to rap music for the first time, it was in English so I couldn't understand a word," Tagai told Reuters.