Although there are various other pages about that on the Internet that merit some attention, I just came upon an old email transcript (dated 1988) of a Reuters article that I find especially informative: http://www.subgenius.com/subg-digest/ancient/0163.html. It is referred from a blog post from a couple of days ago, http://zimblog.typepad.com/tanuki_rambl ... ci_co.html. A part follows (I refrain from quoting full or large texts because copyright shouldn't be infringed):
It is also interesting to learn it is thought that the brother was cruficied instead:Whatever one makes of the legend, there must remain fascinating bits of mystery in a Shingo village.
For centuries, villagers practiced customs unknown to the rest of Japan. Newborn babies wore swaddling clothes embroidered with a Star of David. Up to about 10 years ago, newborns had a cross painted in black ink on their foreheads.
Villagers use words that other people don't understand--their words for father and mother are apa and aya, which they say come from the language Jesus spoke.
Village councilman Tomekichi Shimotochidana and at least half of the hamlet of 4,300 people firmly believe that Jesus lived and died here.
But not a single one of them is Christian, not even his supposed descendant, Toyoji Sawaguchi, whose farm contains a mound topped with a tall wooden cross, said to be Christ's tomb.
The name of Jesus' wife is also given: Yumiko.Threatened with crucifixion, Jesus escaped, but his brother Iskiri was executed in his place, the legend goes.
The brother's ear and some of his hair, retrieved after the crucifixion by some unexplained means, are buried next to the mortal remains of this brother in Shingo, said Shimotochidana.