Robot Goddess, a New Religious Trend For Japanese People

Goddess, A Robot

Recently in a Kodaji temple in Kyoto, Japan, the monks have gathered for a ceremony. This ceremony is rather an age-old one where they ring bells and chant to their new religious statue: Mindar, the Goddess of Mercy in Buddhism.

Then this statue is very special, unlike the other ones because it wasn't carved out of wood or stone, following the story of a reporter from The Diplomat. So instead of making from those traditional materials, it is in the form of a robot, a cyberpunk robot, a kinda new depiction of the Goddess. It is designed with exposed electronic parts and aluminum actuators. According to the creators of the statue, this robot brings a new and unique way to express their religious belief in the tech age.

Altar Ego

The leadership at the Kodaji temple have collaborated with robotic researchers from local universities to make a 1,9 meters robot which will be in charge of delivering a 25-minute long sermon regarding "Heart Sutra" each morning.

From a recent interview, a researcher of the robot has protected the robot goddess from the opinion that the robot doesn't truly understand the sermon.

Androgynous Android

Follow The Diplomat, the researcher combined two genders into a unique robot. It has a human-like face and a middle-ground chest so it looks like both female and male.

Ogawa says that it all depends on the perspective of the viewer. If you treat the android as a male then you will see male features in the Android and vice versa.