Kyara or kyarakuta is a ubiquitous category of mascots in Japan. Although an element of Japanese popular culture, kyara is also infused in some religious spaces. This study investigates the reasons behind the infusion of kyara in certain religious spaces in Japan, and examines the impact it has on the practice of religion in those spaces.

The literature on kyaras amalgamation in religious spaces include theories on consumption, globalization and secularization only.

With the help of textual analysis and ethnographic research, this study tries to investigate other possible explanations of the incorporation of kyara into religious spaces. The explanation being the long existing tradition of Japanese religion that combines secular elements of entertainment with that of the sacred elements of religion, and diminishes the sharp contrast between the two. Such a conflation is not just a desperate measure taken by religious spaces due to constraints of a contemporary society weighed down by the forces of consumerism and secularization but also a continuation of a tradition especially from the Edo era in a regularly renovating fashion.

Further it investigates the impact in the practice of religion in those religious spaces where kyara is introduced. Shūkyō asobi (playful religion) as a theoretical framework is applied in the case study of Kanda Myōjin and Ryōhōji temple in Tokyo. The result is the determination of religion being re-created in these spaces. Religion here is practiced in a renewed way, thus opposing the secularization theory that suggests a diminishing role of religion in contemporary society.