Festival at Miwa Shrine

Following their animistic roots, Cosmic Buddha went to the Miwa Grand Shrine as first documented in this post. Since then, I repeatedly forgot about some of the other photos waiting to be uploaded, but suddenly remembered today. So without further ado:
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This lovely illustrated guide tells you how to cleanse yourself before entering the sanctuary.
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This is one of the five samurai on site for the celebrations. He was smoking a short Hope (US equivalent: Camel straight). There were supposed to be 300 samurai. Kansai Timeout, you suck (unless you published a link to this site as one reader reported, in which case you rock, doodz).
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This old guy cracked me up. He had more energy in those old bones than anyone else at the festival.
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The moment of truth! The mikoshi is carried from the shrine to the outer sanctuary in a flurry of oioiois and yoshas.
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OK this is classic. I thought my picture taking went unnoticed but look at the ” what a perv” expressions on these miko. I tell you, real virgins wouldn’t have such fire in their eyes. The one on the left is straight out of a Tale of Genji woodblock print. Now that’s a virginal pose…
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I have this strange obsession with wooden footwear… It’s just so cool.

8 thoughts on “Festival at Miwa Shrine

  1. Dude, I need new seta. Mine are from this store in Shibuya, but were made in Kyushu somewhere according to the old man who ran the place. Look for a pair for me. They cost like 8,000 yen in Shibuya, so you can probably get them for a few thou or so.

  2. Couple of Japan blog posts of note

    Over at Translator’s Note, Zachary discusses a NYT piece on Japanese racism in an interesting post you all should read. Anyway, here some of it: The perception that foreigners commit more crimes has taken root partially because the crimes that

  3. Giles – please remove my blog from your awards, I don’t want a goddamn thing to do with your thieving of Phil’s intellectual property. Legal status aside, I just think it’s a rat bastard thing to do and you are a man of no honor.
    NZ Bear should create a new category for you in the Blogosphere Ecosystem called “Steaming Shitwads.” No wonder you have hardly any votes in your Japan category; people in this country tend to value honesty and integrity, things you may have heard of in third grade but obviously didn’t absorb.
    Plus, you spelled “buddha” wrong on your page you fucking nitwit.
    But I am so happy you liked the photos.

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