{"id":44587,"date":"2025-02-20T18:11:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T09:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=44587"},"modified":"2025-02-21T10:43:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T01:43:30","slug":"assassins-creed-shadows-real-life-japanese-shrine-officials-are-taking-action-over-ubisofts-portrayal-of-religious-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/assassins-creed-shadows-real-life-japanese-shrine-officials-are-taking-action-over-ubisofts-portrayal-of-religious-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Assassins Creed Shadows: Real-life Japanese shrine officials are &#8220;taking action\u201d over Ubisoft&#8217;s portrayal of religious site\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Itate Hyozu Shrine in Japan\u2019s Hyogo Prefecture is taking action over Ubisoft\u2019s usage of the religious site in the upcoming <strong>Assassins Creed Shadows<\/strong>, it\u2019s been confirmed. On the other hand, rumors about Japan\u2019s Association of Shinto Shrines taking action against Ubisoft have been debunked.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, controversy was kicked up around a gameplay video from Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows that was shared around the beginning of February. In the video, it is shown that the player can enter Itate Hyozu Shrine (in-game location based on the real-life shrine of the same name) and destroy parts of it, including its altar and sacred objects, which caused mixed reactions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wake up, Ubisoft \u201cdefender,\u201d and hear our voice! What kind of Assassin\u2019s Creed game destroys an actual religious site? Japanese culture is consumed but receives no respect. Here is a perfect example. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UsfWMgy53n\">pic.twitter.com\/UsfWMgy53n<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Shohei Kondo (@shoheikondo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shoheikondo\/status\/1885391745854173688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Some users claimed that the shrine being destroyable was inherently disrespectful to Japanese religion and culture, while others argued that it was just part of making the player\u2019s interaction with the world feel realistic. It may be worth noting here that ransacking the shrine is not part of game progression, as well as the fact that footage of its destruction was not used for promotion of the game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the controversy, rumors started spreading that the shrine\u2019s real-life officials were \u201cfurious\u201d with Ubisoft and asking for Itate Hyozu\u2019s removal from Shadows. However, there weren&#8217;t any credible sources nor official statements from the parties in question to verify the story.\u00a0But on February 20, Japan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sankei.com\/article\/20250220-PF3AE6LOHRA6DGWT3APVNP6GLI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sankei News published statements<\/a> by Itate Hyozu Shrine\u2019s officials on the matter. According to the report, the shrine\u2019s representatives are \u201ctaking appropriate action\u201d regarding the portrayal of the religious site in Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1333\" height=\"753\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1333px) 100vw, 1333px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44587-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44587-001.jpg 1333w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44587-001-380x215.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44587-001-768x434.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked whether they had received prior notice from Ubisoft about the shrine\u2019s use, Itate Hyozu\u2019s official commented, \u201cNo, if they had contacted us, we would have refused.\u201d The official did not provide details about what \u201ctaking appropriate action\u201d entails, so it remains unclear whether they are asking for the shrine\u2019s removal from the game, adjustments to what the player can do in it, or some other form of action.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, rumors on social media also claimed that Japan\u2019s Association of Shinto Shrines was \u201ctaking action\u201d against Ubisoft, but this has been debunked by an official interviewed by The Sankei News.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related Articles: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/assassins-creed-shadows-japanese-steam-page-drops-term-samurai-from-yasuke-description\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows\u2019 Japanese Steam page drops term \u201csamurai\u201d from Yasuke\u2019s description&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ubisoft-agrees-to-remove-flag-from-assassins-creed-shadows-artbook-issues-overall-message-to-japanese-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ubisoft agrees to remove flag from Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows artbook, issues overall message to Japanese community&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been confirmed that officials of the Itate Hyozu Shrine in Japan are taking action over  its portrayal in Ubisoft&#8217;s Assassins&#8217;s Creed Shadows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":44599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-44587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44587"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44611,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44587\/revisions\/44611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}