Preparations are gathering pace for Japan's New Year celebrations, which will ring in the Year of the Rabbit.
At the Dazaifu-Tenmangu shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture, western Japan, female attendants are turning out thousands of good-luck charms inspired by rabbits, which will be sold over the New Year period.
The shrine is dedicated to the 10th century statesman, Sugawara Michizane, revered as a god of learning and the arts.
In the shrine's main hall, female attendants clad in traditional hakama costume are attaching rabbit plaques to sacred arrows, or 'hamaya'. They are also hand-painting miniature decorative rabbits.
Like the creatures in real life, the rabbit charms are multiplying rapidly, with the shrine aiming to produce some 100 thousand of them by December 20th.
One of the female attendants says she is crafting each rabbit while praying for good health for all through 2011.
The shrine is expecting more than 2 million worshippers during the first 3 days of the New Year.
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