Spring is an exciting time of year. After the winter hibernation, nature reawakens in colourful and often spectacular fashion. Plum and cherry blossom are accompanied by daffodil and crocus. Farmers set about planting again, and Shinto hosts a range of … Read the rest
Category: Festivals (Page 1 of 26)
Feb 3 is Setsubun and a time for throwing beans at demons. (Beans represent vitality, demons represent evil spirits that cause illness and ill fortune.) The event takes place at shrines, temples and in people’s … Read the rest
The report below, featured in today’s Independent newspaper, prompts the question of what the women will be wearing when they partake for the first time in a Naked Festival with over a millennium’s worth of tradition . As can … Read the rest
(first posted 2010)
These extracts are part of an ongoing series from a forthcoming book about travelling from the most northerly station in Japan to the most southerly.
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Kunchi refers to … Read the rest
Imagine a grotesque red face, straggling thick hair, pointed horns and a creature enveloped in straw which hangs down to the waist. Straw armbands and straw sandals complete the clothing, and in its hand is a staff. Pierced cheeks and … Read the rest
When Isabella Bird arrived in Aomori in 1878, she was far from pleased with the town, calling it ‘a miserable looking place, a town of grey houses, grey roofs, and grey stones on roofs, built … Read the rest