Traditional
Antonio sent me a while ago these pics of a traditional festival that is celebrated every year in Saidaiji. In the festival men go out on the streets dressed in some sort of gigantic thong, with their butts hanging out and all. I don’t know why, but this festival somehow reminds me of the Festival [...]
On this occasion, instead of Sailor Moon make-up, I came across this cool video showing the whole process that a Geisha goes through when putting on make-up. Geishas and maikos have been putting on make-up the same way for over four hundred years. However not only geishas take make-up so seriously; the make-up culture is [...]
I find this collection of “3D” photos amazing (Stereoscopies were made by T-emani between 1859 and 1929). In them you can appreciate everyday lifestyle in Japan during the Meiji Era. The 2 original pictures. Animated version with a certain 3D sensation… Glasses version. The great Buddha in Kamakura has barely changed. Animated version by Pinktentacle. [...]
In the following video, an actor (who ironically turns out to be Kusanagi) showers/takes a bath in some kind of goemon-buro, the same way as it was supposedly done two hundred years ago. He cleans his teeth with his finger using salt. Vídeo by Japanprobe
The other day in the Hanabi in Edogawa I had the chance to take quite a few pictures of people wearing yukatas. This light traditional garment can be usually seen in summer, usually in traditional festivals (Matsuri). Apart from being used in summer matsuris, yukatas are also usually worn when going out of the bath [...]
Last month I had the opportunity to revisit the Ryoan-ji temple, widely known for its dry garden. What many people don’t know is that in the back part of the temple there is a tsukubai, a stone fountain that can usually be found in Buddhist temples where water is poured from a bamboo cane. It [...]
When I visited the Meiji Jingu temple for the Hatsumode tradition there were lots of sake bottles at the altar from different famous distilleries that pay to have their bottles placed next to the Gods. By doing this they hope business will go well in the future. The funny thing is that there were Coke [...]
Ryoan-ji Zen temple is a temple located in Kyoto renowned for the beauty of its dry garden, which is said to cause tranquility and peacefulness to those that contemplate it. The garden is composed by 15 different rocks arranged in 3 big groups in a way that all the rocks can only be seen at [...]
