Religion: Priestly Duty

On the woody top of Mount Koya, south of Osaka in Japan, are scores of ancient temples and pilgrim hostels that make up the spiritual center of the influential Buddhist sect called Shingon-shu. Last week the shaven-pated monks of Shingon-shu climbed out of their black robes into a strange new garb called a baseball uniform, began pitching a stitched leather ball around and swinging at it with a wooden club called a bat.

“The priestly duty has always made it imperative for us to understand what is uppermost in the secular mind,” a senior priest explained. “And baseball is uppermost—one of those difficult things one cannot understand without playing it.”