Japan is a wonderful place for juxtapositions of traditional and contemporary culture (although the two categories are never static and always interactive.) Here we see a shrine's rice-planting festival in Nishinomiya. What was once a succession of rice and vegetable fields is now dotted with apartment buildings--yet the show must go on if the shrine's kami are to be adequately honored and its ritual cycle to remain efficacious.
All photos and text © Copyright John K. Nelson, 1999