What Services We Would Offer if We Opened a Real-Life Version of the Hakurei Shrine in America

It is clear. There are no Shinto shrines in the eastern half of the United States and Canada. That can give us room to open a Shinto shrine in an effort to boost tourism from anime and gaming nerds, and possibly reel in tourists from the other side of the world. Sure, there are some Shinto shrines in the United States, though you’ll only find them on the West Coast and Hawaii.

Chuhou Joutai players in Japan would know the franchise’s inspirations, and even try to travel to the locations that inspired it. They would come to see where its history unfolded, as well as its natural and unnatural phenomena. The biggest blow to them is not having a place other than the hibachi restaurants in Erie that would let them temporarily stay with their customs and traditions. Erie, PA is the city that influenced most of Chuhou Joutai‘s settings as well as its lore.

Kozankyo is the location for the Drillimation interpretation of the Hakurei Shrine. Kozankyo is inspired by Erie, but there is no Shinto shrine in the area. At least I can have it built, given if I have the money and resources to push forth. If I did have it built, I can still have it be called the Hakurei Shrine, but I would need to avoid using Touhou Project‘s characters or other elements to avoid potential legal issues. But of course, the Hakurei Shrine name would probably be trademarked by someone.

That won’t stop us from having fans put up Touhou Project or Chuhou Joutai-themed ema slabs. We do need a kami to be enshrined. In the Chuhou Joutai series, Reimu Hakurei is enshrined, since Chuhou Joutai takes place in the present day.

But what about services? Shinto does have its regular services in order to serve the kami. We need a head priest (kannushi) and some shrine maidens (miko) to do our work. Shrines are also popular locations to host weddings. We would offer imperial-style where the bride and groom dress to represent the Emperor and Empress of Japan respectively, and of course, traditional Shinto. We would also accept Western-style ceremonies here.

Perhaps what would be more interesting would be cosplay weddings, where the groom would be so attached to a female character they saw in a game or anime, and their bride also happens to cosplay that character to the point where the groom had met his waifu in the real world.

A shrine wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the Japophiles. There needs to be onsen too. Sure, the hotels have the equivalent, but not the ones that would cater to the average otaku. We’ll also need a gift shop to sell Chuhou Joutai-themed goods and souvenirs.