Calligraphy: 香漂; drifting fragrance
Japan stretches from north to south, from very cold areas to very warm areas. Every year we all wait for the sakura front to sweep by and decorate the world with its phenomenal show of nature. We tend to appreciate more things that last short, and the blooming cherry trees are definitely one of those things. Although there are many types of sakura flowers, each of them appears in Tokyo approximately for a week, and then it falls down like a flower blizzard. Sakura is very difficult to predict, and even a few days before the flowers open and we all can enjoy hanami (花見, lit. flower viewing), no one can exactly specify the date when it will be in full bloom. This year was no exception. By now, sakura should be in its peak, yet when we stormed the metropolis armed in our cameras we could see that it was not so. And today, it is raining.... This, however, does mean that we were not able to take some photos of sakura. Here is one of them with my calligraphy art added to the picture. Enjoy!
Calligraphy: 香漂; drifting fragrance
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If you go to a traditional Japanese wedding, then stand on a side and close your eyes and only listen to the surroundings, you will not know whether this is a wedding or a funeral procession. It is slow, traditional music sounds are a rather dramatic, and everyone is dead serious. However, the stunning parade of women and men dressed in traditional kimono, and the wedding ceremony itself are well worth witnessing. It is really beautiful. Wedding party, on the other hand, is something that you can skip, as it is being animated to the last detail by 1456 wedding animators, extremely stiff, need to fill an application with a pastport photo every time you want leave the table and go to pee, cant really talk to anyone as you are given a seat and have to stay there for the whole thing, and get kicked out after 3 or so hours. Not my idea of whoopie. Photo was shot in Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo, where weddings such as this one can cost around 100,000 $ (yup, thats hundred thousand).
As a kid, I had no idea who I wanted to become when I grow up. I guess it must be the artist in me - always confused like a snake in a can of tomatoes, with mind spinning like roller-coaster. I took this photo when I went to Odaiaba in Tokyo, to shoot the giant Gundam statue at Gundam Tokyo Front, the Japanese anime action figure slash robot slash transformer thingie. By chance, there was a racing car show there, and I snapped this photo. Photos like this, make me realise how special and unique the art of photography really is.
Japan is well known for the Mother Nature showing off with her scenic cherry blossom yearly event. Not many people realise, however, that sakura viewing, or admiring the cherry blossoms, is a custom which was introduced to Japan from China about 1300 years ago. The vast majority also believes that hanami (花見, lit. flower viewing) is happening mainly in March. This is most likely because 90% (do not quote me on this) of foreigners lives in Greater Tokyo, where the so called sakura front arrives at March. The truth is, that sakura can appear erratically, spontaneously and unexpectedly much earlier than this. Below photo was taken by me during the first days of February just outside the Shinto Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (鶴岡八幡宮) shrine in Kamakura, which is located only one hour south from Tokyo. But, is it really sakura...? Japanese calligraphy is written in a blend modern semi-cursive and cursive scripts reads 春香 - the fragrance of spring.
The Warding off Evil grand festival (厄除大祭) is one of the Japanese Shinto religion ceremonies, which is held in major shinto shrines. It involves prayers, symbolic purifying fire, ritual dance performed by the shrine maidens, and traditional Japanese music. Below photo shows two Shinto priests, who play traditional Japanese instruments - the Japanmese shime daiko drum (締め太鼓), which is a small drum played with sticks called bachi (桴(, and the flute, that looked to me like kagurabue (神楽笛), which is a transverse flute used for Shinto religion ceremonies, mainly for the kagura dance. I gave this photo an antique look. I think it fits the mood perfectly.
Today I decided to launch the Japan in Photography blog! I plan on publishing here short posts with pictures that hopefully will allow those of you who have interest in Japan, to travel together with me, through pictures and stories. Enjoy!
Coming of Age Day is know in Japanese as 成人の日 (seijin no hi), which literally means "adult's day". Every year, on the second Monday of January, Japanese young people celebrate their 20 years of age, which involves meeting with friends, dressing in traditional Japanese kimono, going out with family members, etc. This tradition is quite old, and it was initiated in early 8th century C.E. It is also one of those rare occasions when one may see girls wearing furisode (振袖), long-sleeved kimono, which is the most formal kimono for unmarried women. The below picture was taken at Ginza today. You can see three girls wearing formal, lavishly decorated kimono. |
Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
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