The year's first fair at a Buddhist temple in Kyoto was crowded with visitors on Friday.
Toji temple holds a fair on the 21st of every month to mark the date when the Buddhist priest Kobo Daishi died in the year 835. The January fair is called Hatsu Kobo, or the first Kobo.
An estimated 100,000 people visited the fair on Friday. Many of them prayed in front of the statue of Kobo Daishi.
In the temple precincts, about 1,100 stalls sold food, clothes and antiques. Rabbit dolls made of chirimen, or traditional Japanese silk cloth, were a popular item, as 2011 is the year of the rabbit in the Chinese zodiac.
2011年1月21日金曜日
2010年11月26日金曜日
Rabbits for New Year
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.
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.
登録:
投稿 (Atom)