From our other sites
The story
Masahiro Matsuoka, formerly of TOKIO, shared a funeral story on his YouTube channel that’s gotten people talking. He said that even though a senior, highly respected monk had come to perform the reading, “the sutra was on tape” — he guessed it might have been due to the monk’s poor health, but it apparently caught the staff off guard. On 5ch, the story sparked all kinds of reactions: complaints about how expensive funeral donations (o-fuse) are, trivia about what sutras are actually supposed to mean, and pragmatic takes saying a tape is fine either way. Plenty of jabs also tied it back to Matsuoka’s own history of “miming” instrument performances in TOKIO, making for a livelier discussion than just a simple surprising anecdote.
Masahiro Matsuoka recounts a shocking funeral moment — a senior monk attended, yet… “The sutra was on tape”
Masahiro Matsuoka (49), formerly of TOKIO, updated his YouTube channel on the 9th, where he shared a startling funeral experience.
When the topic turned to funerals, Matsuoka said, “There was a monk whose sutra was on tape — probably because his health wasn’t great, though I don’t really know the details,” surprising the staff.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
With three of them, they'd each take little breathers here and there, but then all three happened to pause at the exact same moment and it went dead silent… I lost it.
Us amateurs can't even tell the difference (´・ω・`)
That's a straight-up rip-off.
Even more than that.
Better hourly rate than a doctor.
Ours was 500,000 yen (~$3,300) (´・ω・`)
so what's the actual point of them? (´・ω・`)
That'll do just fine.
fine, but then at least chant with a nice voice and give a proper sermon. If it's just a tape, I want an 80% discount.
"ha ha han han han-nya han-nya hara hara mi mi mi mi mi♪"
(a skipping-record version of the Heart Sutra's "Hannya Haramitta")
I bet viewers at the time were thinking, "Sing for real, you jerk!"
They eat meat, drink, smoke, gamble, chase women — no different from regular people.
Except for a rare few who are the real deal,
most monks these days are basically running it as a business.
All they want is an easy life and money.
And yet they still act high and mighty demanding cash.
So in the near future, something that looks like a Pepper robot will just glide in from the waiting room?
That would crack me up lol
Funeral time is the one occasion I actually envy Soka Gakkai members.
The Gakkai aunties just took over and handled everything for us.
So what's there to even be surprised about?
a monk chanting sutras —
subscriber numbers would go up.
If all you care about is the appearance of it, then who cares?
My dad's funeral cost a million yen (~$6,700), and I had to cover whatever was left after the condolence money.
Flowers alone running into the tens of thousands of yen — that's basically a rip-off bar.
But you got an inheritance out of it, right? lol
Background and talking points
The custom of monks receiving a fee (o-fuse) for chanting sutras at funerals remains deeply entrenched, but the going rate — and even whether a fee is charged at all — varies widely by temple and region, with no official standard. Anecdotes in the thread cite figures of “200,000 to 500,000 yen (roughly $1,300–$3,300) per session,” and it’s that very lack of transparency around cost that makes the topic so easy to pile onto. Commenters also cited an explanation (originating from NHK’s “Chiko-chan Will Scold You!”) noting that sutras aren’t actually meant to mourn the dead but rather to convey the Buddha’s teachings — suggesting many people misunderstand their true meaning. The use of taped sutra recordings is reportedly a real practice in some cases, driven by aging monks’ declining health and a shortage of clergy — meaning this may reflect a genuine shortage of people to perform funeral rites rather than just being a punchline, a point the thread itself never raised. It’s also worth noting that many of the jabs in the thread specifically drew a parallel to Matsuoka’s own history of miming instrument performances during his TOKIO days — a callback unique to this particular story.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Masahiro Matsuoka recounts a shocking funeral moment — a senior monk attended, yet… “The sutra was on tape” / “So it’s lip-syncing, huh?”.”
Leave a Reply