Author: John D. (Page 85 of 202)

In praise of trees

February 28, 2015 / John D.

Getting in touch with the power of trees at Ise Jingu

It’s rare to find a Shinto shrine without a sacred tree. Indeed, the origins of shrines may well have started with trees, and their symbolic nature may permeate the human consciousness… Deeply rooted below the earth and rising up to the skies, they span the three worlds of shamanism and there’s a very real reason why The Tree of Life came to dominate spiritual thought in ancient times.

‘Why is it that when we behold the oldest living trees in the world, primeval awe runs down our spine? We are entwined with trees in an elemental embrace, both biological and symbolic, depending on them for the very air we breathe as well as for our deepest metaphors, millennia in the making. They permeate our mythology and our understanding of evolution. They enchant our greatest poets and rivet our greatest scientists. Even our language reflects that relationship – it’s an idea that has taken “root” in nearly every “branch” of knowledge.’ – Maria Popova, writing in Brain Pickings.

**********************************************************************************************************

The piece below comes from the introduction to The Book of Trees by Manuel Lima:

“In a time when more than half of the world’s population live in cities, surrounded on a daily basis by asphalt, cement, iron, and glass, it’s hard to conceive of a time when trees were of immense and tangible significance to our existence. But for thousands and thousands of years, trees have provided us with not only shelter, protection, and food, but also seemingly limitless resources for medicine, fire, energy, weaponry, tool building, and construction. It’s only normal that human beings, observing their intricate branching schemas and the seasonal withering and revival of their foliage, would see trees as powerful images of growth, decay, and resurrection. In fact, trees have had such an immense significance to humans that there’s hardly any culture that hasn’t invested them with lofty symbolism and, in many cases, with celestial and religious power. The veneration of trees, known as dendrolatry, is tied to ideas of fertility, immortality, and rebirth and often is expressed by the axis mundi (world axis), world tree, or arbor vitae (tree of life). These motifs, common in mythology and folklore from around the globe, have held cultural and religious significance for social groups throughout history – and indeed still do.”

**********************************************

Here too is a wonderful passage by Herman Hesse (taken from Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte [Trees: Reflections and Poems], originally published in 1984:

sacred tree festooned with shimenawa rope and shide paper strips

“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.

When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

Korean shaman tree

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. . . . Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one’s suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”

Sacred tree at Fuji Sengen Jinja

Tree shrine, captivating in its simplicity

Fortune slips in a wrapped up tree

Sacred tree with rope and coin offerings for good luck

Senja Fuda (shrine stickers)

February 25, 2015 / John D.

Senjafuda placed improbably high on the central beam of a shrine building

When visiting shrines and temples, you’ll sometimes find stickers on the building, as in the picture above. What are they, and what do they say? From my experience they usually bear the name of a person or company, but to what end I wasn’t sure. For an explanation I looked to two different sources on the subject: the first by Timothy Takemoto (Timothy runs the Shinto mailing list), the second from the authoritative website on Japanese religions run by Mark Schumacher (Onmark Productions.com). My thanks to both of them.

*******************************************

For the full version of this extract by Timothy Takemoto, please see here: Senjafuda – One Thousand Shrine Labels.

Photo courtesy ebookworm on Flickr, who notes that in Edo times wealthy merchants competed with fancy designs such that the Shogunate tried to ban the practice.

If you visit shrines in Japan, you’ll find some that are covered in stickers. It is traditional to print one thousand of them and then visit one thousand shrines and paste them to the roof of the entrance as a sort of “I was here” type marking. If one pastes one’s name on one thousand shrines (Senja) then a wish will come true, apparently.

The pasting of the labels is often done under the cover of darkness, or otherwise when priests are not looking, but some shrines and temples charge for the privilege of pasting one’s mark on their shrine gate. The practice of labelling shrines may be similar to the way in which Japanese travellers and other tourists visit famous spots (meisho) such as shrines, and associate with them and their previous visitors such as Basho, often in poetry in a travelogue, and to the practice of leaving small stones on the gates of Shinto shrines.

*********************************

According to Mark Schumacher on the onmark website, Senja Fuda (which he spells senjya-fuda) are “Name stickers that pilgrims paste or stick on the temple gate or shrine gate to prove that they visited that location. In modern times, most pilgrimage sites no longer allow this, primarily as a means for protecting the aging temple/shrine structures. Instead, pilgrims now offer prayer slips. In the old days, you needed a special long (telescope-like) pole to stick them really high up on the rafters and ceilings of the gates. The senjya-fuda tradition apparently became popular during the Edo Period (1603-1867), when many believed that good fortune would come to them while their sticker remained attached to the temple or shrine gate.”

Senja stickers stuck to a pillar of a shrine - proof to the kami that the pilgrim or pilgrim group was really here

Kumano

February 22, 2015 / John D.

Kumano Hayatama Taisha, one of the Big Three Shrines in the area

Kumano is one of Japan’s most appealing areas, a spiritual heartland and part of a World Heritage site. It’s winning increasing attention from tourists, particularly for the opportunities for trekking and hot springs. In the article below, from the Japan Times, Alon Adika highlights the religious and syncretic heritage of the region.

***********************************************

By ALON ADIKA (Japan Times, Jan 11, 2014)

An old tale from Kumano tells of a hunter who was out one day with his dogs when he spotted a large boar. Stretching his bow, he took aim and loosed an arrow deep into the body of the beast. With its last strength, the boar fled and led the hunter to a yew tree at Oyunohara, where it lay down and died. After gorging on its flesh, the hunter fell asleep under the tree, only to waken in the night to see that three moons — which revealed themselves to be manifestations of the three Kumano deities — had descended onto the tree.

Those gongen — native gods that merge indigenous beliefs with avatars of Buddhist deities — remain to this day as intrinsic to the verdant mountains of the Kumano region of the Kii Peninsula straddling parts of Mie, Wakayama and Nara prefectures as its rushing rivers, towering waterfalls and magnificent Pacific Ocean coasts.

The Buddhist pagoda overlooking the sacred Shinto waterfall of Nachi

Considered since time immemorial a mystical realm where the boundaries of the celestial and terrestrial worlds are blurred, Kumano — now a Unesco World Heritage Site — has for a millennia and more been crisscrossed by a network of pilgrimage routes. As well as linking with the ancient capital of Kyoto and other sacred sites in the Kansai region of Honshu, these routes also connect the Kumano Sanzan, the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano — Hongu-Taisha, Nachi-Taisha and Hayatama-Taisha.

But no matter how splendid the Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, in Kumano it’s nature that commands center stage. When I left Osaka in the early morning, it was overcast and a little cool. By the time I reached Nachi Station, a light but steady rain was falling. I got off a local bus at Daimonzaka, from where it was just a short walk to Nachi Grand Shrine on a well- preserved portion of the pilgrimage route.

Two large trees flanked the stone path, like a natural gate into the forest. The rain had turned the forest into an enchanting place: the patter of raindrops hitting the dark-green leaves, the slick and shiny stone path and the old trees towering above me made me feel like I had been transported to a different time and space.

After visiting the shrine, I fixed my eyes on the mountain face across from me. I knew it was there; I had seen it in photographs numerous times. However, through the heavy mist, I could not see it. Then, as if someone had waved a magic wand, the mist dissipated and the powerful Nachi Falls were revealed, thundering down a 133-meter cliff and pounding the pool below.

Kumano eventually became an important training ground for holy men and followers of Shugendo, a syncretic faith that fused native Japanese animism, Buddhism and elements of Taoism. They practiced mountain asceticism to gain spiritual and supernatural power.

Legend has it that in the 11th century, the renowned and much-pictured monk Mongaku sat under Nachi Falls in the dead of winter and was saved from certain death only by divine intervention. In more recent times, Hayashi Jitsukaga, a Shugendo practitioner, flung himself over the lip of the waterfall after a session of zazen meditation in 1884. When his fellows found him in the pool below, it’s said his body was still in the zazen position.

Kamikura Shrine with the sacred Gotobiki rock onto which the Kumano kami descended

Thus fortified, late in the afternoon I made my way through the slick streets of Shingu to the Kumano Hayatama Grand Shrine. It was nearly 6 p.m. and the shrine was empty save for a few attendants getting ready to close it for the night. As I admired the shrine, a mother and daughter entered and paid their respects silently in front of the dripping roofs.

I was searching for a sacred boulder, the Gotobiki Iwa: another legendary landing spot of the Kumano deities, which was also the original site of the Hayatama Shrine. A young attendant gave me directions and a map. It didn’t look very far, but little did I know it was up a mountain.

Behind the Shinto gate, a stone stairway led up the hill, the steep and irregularly sized steps seemed never ending. The stones were slippery from the rain and the sun was already low in the sky. Nobody else was around. The combination of the rain, dense foliage and the waning light all made for an eerie atmosphere. Several times I stopped and pondered turning back, only to force myself onward. I later learned there are more than 500 steps up to Kamikura Shrine and the sacred rock.

At the top, a clearing opened up and I saw the great boulder in front of me. It seemed about the size of a small house and was roundish in shape. One explanation for the “gotobiki” in its name, meaning “toad” in the local dialect, is that it supposedly resembles one. I took out my camera and tried awkwardly to take some pictures while still holding up my flimsy umbrella. After a short while, I started making my way back down, not wanting to be on the mountain alone in the dark.

The roofline of Hongu Taisha in springtime, one of Kumano's Big Three Shrines

Relieved to be back in town, I walked through its nearly deserted shopping arcade in search of some dinner. It was only a little after 7 p.m., but most of the shops were already shuttered and the few still open were preparing to close. I ended up getting something from a bento (boxed-lunch) shop and returned to the small Japanese-style hotel I’d checked into earlier.

The next morning I headed off to Hongu, the third of the Kumano Grand Shrines that I’d just learned also have a dim and distant association with the early gods Izanami (Nachi) and Izanagi (Hayatama) who created the Japanese islands — while Hongu itself boasts a bond with Susanoo, the son of Izanagi and mischievous brother of Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

As I again wanted to approach the sacred site on foot via one of the old pilgrimage paths, I took a bus to Hoshinmon Oji, about 7 km distant from it. In contrast to the day before, the skies were deep blue and the sun was shining brightly.

Pilgrimage routes run through the thickly wooded Kumano hills

I first passed through a small mountain hamlet. The buzz of a lawn mower echoed through the valley. There were some unattended stalls, with local products for sale, by the sides of the street. Most had the salty and sour Wakayama umeboshi (pickled plums), which are supposed to be especially tasty.

The path next took me into the woods. Patches of sunlight created a dazzling chiaroscuro on the ground. After a while, the forest, with its scent of damp earth and wet wood, abruptly ended at a road that cut it in two. On the other side in front of a wooden shelter an elderly lady sat by her stall.

I approached and pointed to the succulent-looking cucumbers she had on ice. After choosing one for me, the woman peeled off some of the skin and sprinkled salt onto the fruit. I was just about to take a bite when she had me hold it out and drizzled some honey on top. It was so good that I devoured it in no time — and then had another.

I reentered the forest and took a small detour to a clearing from where I could view the giant torii gate at Oyunohara in the valley below: the place where, in the ancient legend, the Kumano gods revealed themselves to the hunter. Oyunohara is the original site of the Hongu Grand Shrine, which now stands nearby on higher ground after being damaged in a flood in 1889.

Arriving there was somewhat anticlimactic after walking through Kumano’s magical landscape. I had originally planned to walk much more on the old paths and I felt some regret I had not been able to do so. On the train back to Osaka, I studied the pamphlets and maps I had collected, and began planning a future visit I knew I would have to make.

…

A trip to Kumano requires planning. The following websites will help get you started: tb-kumano.jp/en; hongu.jp/en;nachikan.jp/en; kumano-shingu.com

One of the largest torii in Japan, marking the original site of Hongu Taisha before it was washed away in floods

Saidaiji Naked Festival

February 21, 2015 / John D.

Picture courtesy of Asahi

There are many ‘naked festivals’, though what this generally refers to is men in fundoshi loin cloths who parade through the streets. Some of the naked festivals centre around cold water, some around wooden floats, and some as the one at Saidaiji in Tokyo today are about fighting for lucky charms. Anyone who has been to a festival of this kind will know how the normally polite and patient Japanese can become aggressive in getting hold of the lucky charms. Call it faith, or superstition, or tradition, but the motivation and sincerity is impressive. If you’re in Tokyo today, go see it for yourself…

**************************************
Izumi Iwaki writes in the Japan Times about the Saidaiji Eyo…

This festival is believed to be nearly five centuries old and to have started after a rumor spread that a talisman distributed by a local temple brought its owners lots of good luck.

Men in fundoshi at Kyoto's Gion Matsuri

On hearing this, so many people went to the temple that the staff had no choice but to throw the talismans into the crowd, who fought their way to get at them. It is said that sometimes the scramble was so fierce that the visitors ripped each other’s clothing to shreds.

These talismans — originally paper, now wooden — are known as shingi and every year on the third Saturday of February, thousands of men compete to get hold of one. Wearing only loincloths, despite the cold wintry night, they perform ritual ablutions at Saidaiji Temple until 10 p.m., when the light in the main hall is turned off and two sacred shingi are thrown into the crowd.

The men who catch the shingi could become fuku otoko (lucky men) for the year, but to claim the talismans, they must first carry them out of the main hall and off the temple grounds. This is a lot easier said than done when the rest of the men — who even if they can’t see the shingi can still follow their distinct smell of incense — all battle each other for the lucky charms — right up to the gate of the temple.

Every year, many are injured during this unusual festival, so if you dare to participate, make sure to read through the instructions carefully.

*************************
Saidaiji Eyo (Naked Festival) takes place at Saidaiji Temple, which is 10-min. walk from Ako Line Saidaiji Station. For more information, visit the website.

Photo courtesy Japan Times

People jostle frantically to get a piece of rice cake at the Nagemochi event, part of the Hounen Matsuri at Tagata Jinja

French conference

February 20, 2015 / John D.

Presenter Masatsugu Okutani at the Feb 12 conference in Paris

Masatsugu Okutani explaining 'What is Shinto' to his French audience

Green Shinto has previously featured the work of Shinto priest Masatsugu Okutani in Paris. Now comes news of a conference and photo exhibition held on Feb 12, ‘the first time for France to have such a conference specially in French by a Japanese Shinto priest.’

The meeting centred around the topic of ‘What is Shinto?’ and was held, ecumenically, at the ‘Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de Tenri’.

Masatsugu Okutani, who is a priest from the Yabuhara Shrine in northern Japan, has been working in Paris for some time as a company employee while at the same time helping to spread awareness of Shinto among the French, who he reports are surprisingly open to learning more about the traditions involved.

The exhibition of photographs featured the work of Yamaguchi Katsuhiro, Executive Director of the Society of Japanese Photographers who specialises in cultural heritage such as kyogen, kagura and kabuki as well as the Ontake sacred mountain cult.

Following the presentation, there was opportunity for more informal interaction

Photo exhibition of Japan's cultural and spiritual heritage

A toast with saké to round off the proceedings

********************************************************************

For more information and pictures see here for the Yabuhara Shrine or here for the profile of Masatsugu Okutani.

Japanese characteristics

February 17, 2015 / John D.

Respect for tradition is a vital part of Japanese culture

Japan Today ran an article on Japanese characteristics as seen by foreigners, which was notable for being strikingly positive. It helps explain why living and travelling in Japan is such a joy. Everyday interactions are unfailingly polite and pleasant, while efficiency and good service are the hallmarks of business institutions.

It’s tempting to speculate how much of this is the result of ‘Shinto values’. Certainly the cleanliness of Japanese is often tied to the emphasis on purity in the native tradition. Sincerity too could be said to underlie the honesty (and naivity) of Japanese. Similarly the collective nature of Shinto might be connected with the groupism that characterises Japanese society. Other attributes would seem to derive more from Confucianism than Shinto, though one could argue that the two are closely linked.

Just how and why the Japanese have managed to maintain a high level of civilised behaviour has long been a mystery. The missionaries of the sixteenth century were puzzled by the phenomenon to the extent that they wondered how a non-Christian country could possibly be more advanced in many respects than Europe. It seems that the Japanese have internalised values that are passed on from generation to generation in a way many other countries can only look at with envy. Perhaps respect for tradition in the form of honouring the kami plays a part in this…

*************************************************************

Here are the most common adjectives that Westerners chose when characterizing the people of Japan. (For the original article, see here.)

#1. Polite
Weighing in at number one was polite, or in Japanese “reigi tadashii.” Everyone has heard of the traditional Japanese bow used as a greeting during any given exchange. Though handshakes are perfectly common in Japan now, they more often than not come with a bow as well (or two or three). To the Western mindset, this style of address already seems much more polite than a simple handshake, high-five, or shoulder clap. Of course, the term “polite” in and of itself doesn’t only have a positive connotation. It’s possible to remain too polite and distant from a person, even if you’ve known them for quite a while.

#2. Punctual
Japan takes its time management very seriously. The Japan Railway (JR) and other connecting subways and train systems are well-known for their incredibly punctual schedules. As such, when there is a delay of even a minute, the whole system gets thrown off. Trains often issue late slips for passengers to take to their employers if their trains get delayed. After all, it leaves a very bad impression if you’re late to work.

Patience, politeness and kindness are singled out as key Japanese traits

#3. Kind
Unlike polite, which can have its downsides, kind is a genuinely positive word. In Japanese, words with similar connotations to the English phrase are “yasashii” or “omoyari no aru,” meaning “thoughtful of others.” One sterling example of this is the custom of bringing a gift (usually food) when you visit another person’s house in Japan. This praiseworthy adjective was the third-most repeated term in the thread. That’s a winning score on anyone’s report card.

#4. Hard-working
A hard-worker or “hataraki-mono” is definitely a common word that classifies a Japanese mindset. In a culture where your job is supposed to take precedence over even your family at times, it’s unsurprising that foreign nationals would latch on to this particular description. There is even a word for “death by overwork” in Japanese (“karoshi”). It’s not uncommon for people to work several more hours after their contractual quitting time and, if you’re not a contract worker, that means that you aren’t paid for that overtime. Even if you have a “haken” (contracted job), it’s still considered rude to leave right on schedule.

#5. Respectful
Another tie-in with polite, respectful or “tanin ni taishite keii wo hyo suru” to loosely describe it in Japanese, is a mainly positive word. However, it can sometimes be associated with distance. With the epidemic of idolization in Japan, it’s also possible to take respect just a bit too far. Many Westerners find the concept of being so respectful to their elders a bit outside the norm. But in Japan, the older you get, the wiser you are considered and the more respectfully you’re treated. You’ll get in big trouble if you use informal language with a person older than you unless they’re family. Even then, some relatives still expect proper formal language befitting of their senior status.

#6. Shy
An overall impression of the citizens of Japan is that they’re very shy people, or “hazukashigariya”. This might be linked to their focus on politeness and respect. It is true that you don’t always hear a lot of outspoken Japanese people, especially tourists in foreign countries, but this might be for a different reason altogether. Many Japanese people worry about their foreign language skills and fear saying something incorrectly in English when they talk to native speakers. Conversation practice has only recently become a staple of English classes in Japan.

Formality, order and hierarchy are important to Japanese

#7. Intelligent
There’s a definite stereotype of people from Asian countries being the brainy cream of the crop. Whether this is factually correct or not wasn’t technically relevant to the survey thread, but it certainly was a nice compliment. The Japanese word for intelligent is “kashikoi.” Incidentally, if you tried to say the katakana pronunciation of smart, “sumato,” that actually means to be thin and attractive in Japanese. Not that they’re mutually exclusive adjectives, but be careful of confusing your Japanese friends by trying to call someone intelligent and accidentally calling them slim and sexy.

#8. Grouping
You know how girls are always said to travel in packs? Same goes for Japanese people, apparently. A word of advice to any aspiring English teachers in Japan is to make lots of group activities. Unlike America, where group work is often disliked because sharing the workload with other students inevitably means that it gets divided unequally, Japanese students thrive off of it. They prefer not to have to voice their opinions alone, but would rather share ideas with their peers and make a group decision. In a class of thirty Japanese kids, not many people want to stand up by themselves and read out of an English textbook. But put everyone in groups of three and make them read it in turns and you’ve got yourself an engaged classroom.

#9. Formal
Tying in with polite, Japan has a reputation for being very formal. This manifests itself in both manner and language. Japanese has many different formality levels depending on who you’re addressing. This can be tiresome for people attempting to learn the language, and it can also lead to crossed wires between friends, especially in the case of foreigners and Japanese people. An American might wonder why their friend still calls them “David-san” when they’ve known each other for a few years. Far from wanting to keep distance between them, the Japanese friend might just be waiting for David to mention that they don’t really need to keep titles between them. After all, without checking first, it can be considered rude to suddenly stop using formal language (an act called “yobisute” or “dropping the name honorific”).

#10. Clean
Many Internet users have seen Japanese tourists pick up trash from around campsites and rest stops even when they didn’t make the mess themselves. This habit and others added the description of clean to the list. Did you know that Japanese students clean their schools by themselves? No janitors, just students hauling trash bags, sweeping the steps, and wiping down the halls with washcloths for a good 30 minutes each day. Most storefront owners sweep up the sidewalks and streets outside their stores, too. Making it your business to keep communal space clean is a distinctly different mindset from some Western countries. Just think of all the gum-strewn, littered streets of big cities in America.

Cleanliness is next to godliness

Harmony brings happiness to the Japanese sense of groupism

Valentine’s shrine

February 15, 2015 / John D.

Namba One Shrine – made entirely of cookies and chocolates

There’s often a lighthearted aspect to Shinto, evidence of which can be seen in ‘a candy shrine’ to Valentine’s Day put up by a shopping centre in Osaka. You could see it as a curious mix of the traditional enmusubi (love connection) aspect of shrines with imported notions about love on Valentine’s Day. The result, as this report from the Japan Times shows, is peculiarly Japanese. (The website for the shrine speaks of Fushimi Inari as ‘a love power spot’, and being able to hang up an ema at the Valentine shrine as a means of gaining romantic fulfilment.)

*********************************

Matchmaking Namba One Shrine

Valentine’s Day in Japan is quite a different affair to that of the West. On Feb. 14, it is the women who confess their love to the men, and they do so by giving chocolates to the objects of their affections.

Women don’t take this custom lightly, looking for good chocolates, sometimes even making them. To help them in their love quest, Namba Walk, an underground shopping center in Osaka has set up a Namba One (No. 1) match-making shrine.

Constructed entirely from cookies, biscuits, macaroons and chocolates, this shrine was designed and created by students from Osaka Cooking and Confectionery College. It’s a sweets version of Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, which is famous for its god of good fortune and matchmaking. Like any other shrine, visitors will find ema (votive tablets) and omikuji (written fortunes), while special gifts will also be given to visitors looking for romance. (Izumi Iwaki)

The shrine's logo, complete with the Inari konkon mascot