Katsuragi Shrine in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Japan’s long history has left a vast cultural heritage. Ancient Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines venerated for hundreds of years and masterpieces of the gardeners’ art are lovingly preserved throughout the country. In the midst of the modern world, the Japanese still value the old and the traditional.

The Japan’s indigenous religion, Shintoism, in layman language called the way of the gods. Its shrines are found everywhere throughout the country from small postage stamp-sized fox shrines sandwiched between skyscrapers to the broad, wooded expanses of the complex dedicated to the Sun Goddess at Ise. Shinto is a complex mixture of practices, beliefs and traditions of each of the local communities and it is hardly to believe in a modern, technologically advanced country like Japan, a religious view capable of regarding everything from mountain to the emperor as a god is possible.

The Japanese love festivals and to maintain traditions and observe ancient rituals, many folks join societies which keep the old customs alive through instruction and practice. At a typical Shinto ritual, groups of jostling, shouting young men and women carry portable shrines around the neighbourhood, stopping the traffic. While I was performing a taoist ritual in one of its occasion, a Shinto priest, Masatoshi Nohda 能田政俊 of Katsuragi Shrine 葛城神社 offers me a cup of sake beer directly taken from the praying altar for me to consume before the ritual end. I know that they have practised something differently from ours or somebody may call it as a cultural shock.