Shinto Ceremony Japan

Shinto priest Masatsugu Okutani, 41 dresses into his ceremonial clothes in preparation for the Summer Grand Purification ceremony to be held at the Yabuhara Sanctuary, with his father Kazufumi Okutani, 71. They are the 24th and 25th uninterrupted generational SHINTO priests in their family line dating back to the 12th century AD. The essence of the ceremony is to remove temporarily all impurities such as rational thought from ones body and mind and maximize ones sensitivities. In other words to be in a state of heightened concentration of the here and now and allow ones sensitivities to be replenished as they are a constant source of japanese cultural identity, Kiso Mura village.

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Copyright: Christopher Pillitz
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Shinto priest Masatsugu Okutani, 41 dresses into his ceremonial clothes in preparation for the Summer Grand Purification ceremony to be held at the Yabuhara Sanctuary, with his father Kazufumi Okutani, 71. They are the 24th and 25th uninterrupted generational SHINTO priests in their family line dating back to the 12th century AD. The essence of the ceremony is to remove temporarily all impurities such as rational thought from ones body and mind and maximize ones sensitivities. In other words to be in a state of heightened concentration of the here and now and allow ones sensitivities to be replenished as they are a constant source of japanese cultural identity, Kiso Mura village.