In Financial Straits, Shrines Turn to Luxury Property Development
Shinto elders at the centuries-old Unesco World Heritage Site of Shimogamo Shrine upset neighbors when they bulldozed a swath of old Kyoto forest to build an apartment complex with units selling for more than $2 million apiece. “They should call it the Shimogamo Corporation,” says one angry parishioner, Akira Hitomi. Skepticism of religion is common [...]