Japanese shrine once repaired thanks to Ghost of Tsushima fans bans all tourists after “unforgivable act of disrespect”

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
Watazumi Shrine, a real-life Shinto shrine located on Japan’s Tsushima Island, has announced that it will prohibit entry to anyone other than congregants and worshippers starting March 23. According to official announcements posted on Instagram and Threads, the decision to ban all tourists was prompted by “a grave and unforgivable act of disrespect committed by foreigner(s).”

20250324-45970-003.jpg
The Watazumi Shrine is one of the locations on Tsushima Island that gained significant worldwide attention after the release of Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima in 2020. The shrine is theorized to have inspired the Scarlet Rock Shrine that appears in-game, and Ghost of Tsushima fans famously made large donations to help repair it after it was damaged in a typhoon later in 2020 (source: Famitsu). The crowdfunding campaign launched by the shrine raised 27 million yen (around $180 thousand USD – five times the original target), earning gratitude from the shrine’s priests.

Ghost of Tsushima

Unfortunately, the Watazumi Shrine has since gone through several instances of problematic behavior from visitors, which has on one occasion resulted in a controversial ban on visitors from South Korea (source: Tokyo Weekender). And now, a serious incident that occurred on March 22 has prompted the shrine to forbid all tourists from entering the premises.

Although the shrine’s officials do not offer details about the “grave and unforgivable act of disrespect” that triggered the strict measures, they mention consulting with police on numerous occasions regarding problematic behavior from visitors, including vandalism of the sacred grounds and repeated physical and verbal abuse against staff. Such acts have caused the shrine’s officials “unbearable mental anguish” and have left staff feeling that “management of the shrine is in jeopardy.”

Source
 
Last edited:
Loomy

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Guardian Monkey said:
Japan overreacted to the Ubisoft game. Sadly probably would have never came to this if they did not. I’m not condoning the individual’s actions by any means. But when they went at Ubisoft, some idiot retaliating was all but inevitable.
Click to expand...
Doubt this has anything to do with the game.

The Chinese man writing "toilet" and peeing on the pillar was last year, and so was the ban on Korean tourists. This is very likely related to that. Korean and Chinese people have historical beef with Japan, and Japan was the aggressor in both situations. Not saying any of this is justified, but that's likely the reason for the continued vandalism.

The fact that this shrine is associated with a game just makes it a popular target.
 
Guardian Monkey

Guardian Monkey

Member
Loomy said:
Doubt this has anything to do with the game.

The Chinese man writing "toilet" and peeing on the pillar was last year, and so was the ban on Korean tourists. This is very likely related to that. Korean and Chinese people have historical beef with Japan, and Japan was the aggressor in both situations. Not saying any of this is justified, but that's likely the reason for the continued vandalism.

The fact that this shrine is associated with a game just makes it a popular target.
Click to expand...
“And now, a serious incident that occurred on March 22 has prompted the shrine to forbid all tourists from entering the premises.” IDK sounds like something recent.
 
U

Unknown Soldier

Member
The shrine isn't closed to the public, they said it is still open for actual people who want to enter to honor the deities enshrined there, just as Jin Sakai did hundreds of years ago*

They are just tired of tourists showing up and stealing things, drawing graffiti, harassing the monks, and other completely unacceptable behavior

*At a fictionalized version of the real shrine, you don't need to climb all over a bunch of cliffs to reach it in real life
 
mitch1971

mitch1971

Member
Guardian Monkey said:
Japan overreacted to the Ubisoft game. Sadly probably would have never came to this if they did not. I’m not condoning the individual’s actions by any means. But when they went at Ubisoft, some idiot retaliating was all but inevitable.
Click to expand...
These bans for tourists were being put in place way before Ubisoft announced the game. They had finally banned people in one of the Geisha villages because people couldn't understand the fact that the people living there were actual Geishas and not some Disney type costume wearer. They were getting sick of people disrespecting them as objects, from pointing cameras in their face and getting in their way as they went about their daily lives.
 
Last edited:
yurinka

yurinka

Member
I understand them, etarded unrespectful tourists are a thing. Idiots who do this kind of vandalism should be banned from travelling outside their home country.

Here in Spain drunk German and specially English tourist are a plague in certain locations. But at least here they do balconing and kill themselves, there's even a parody "Balconing Federation" tracking their real death toll since the year 2000 and England normally wins the 'league' every year xDD
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom