Year-end cleaning at shrine and temple

Shrines and temples across Japan began their annual cleaning rituals on Monday ahead of the New Year.

At Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura, about 150 priests and shrine officials used five-meter long bamboo stalks to dust the beams and the upper parts of the shrine's pillars. The bamboo stalks were cut on a nearby mountain.

A shrine official says about 2.5 million visitors are expected during the first 3 days of the New Year.

In Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo, Buddhist monks also cleaned the Kashozan Mirokuji temple in Numata.
It is known as the temple of the teng -- long-nosed goblin-like creatures in Japanese folklore.

The temple houses many tengu masks that come in a variety of sizes from 10 centimeters up to more than 6 meters.