More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

The two latest masks I completed. Every winter I have a rather optimistic plan to finish lots of new masks. Summers are too humid to m...

Continuing with some photos of masks I found in shrines while walking along the Iwami coast this past spring. In a small shrine in a r...

While walking along the Shimane coast in the spring I stopped in at as many shrines as I could. One of the things I seek out at shrine...

These two demon masks were located behind the main building of the Hachiman Shrine in Yuki, a fishing village on the south coast of To...

Okazaki Shrine in the fishing village of Yuki on the Tokushima coast is a small local shrine, now made of concrete. There was no infor...

After the round of ceremonies at Nakano Omoto Matsuri it was time for more dancing and first up was some very young kids dancing Hachi...

Last weekend I went upriver to the Kawamoto Kagura Competition. While I believe that kagura is best appreciated in a shrine, kagura co...

Onigawara are "demon tiles" found most commonly on temple roofs, but also on some shrines and even private dwellings. ...

This is the second half of a post on the Oeyama dance as performed at last years matsuri up in Kanzui, The first half can be found her...

Its just about midnight at the small shrine in the mountain settlement of Kanzui not far from my own village. The annual matsuri got under...

Soja is a small town at the western edge of the Kibi Plain in southern Okayama. The local history museum is housed in the only remaining Mei...