Snapshots — June 7, 2022
Photographs taken during a short walk in Saitama, Japan.
Driving back from a job at night, I saw a shrine in Kou-no-su city lit up and shining in the light rain. I didn’t expect the place to be so inviting at night. I had to capture it.
It is called “Kou shrine”. The legend says a kou, a kind of fair-sized bird, stork or crane, protected people from the capricious sacred tree. The village is since called Kou-no-su village — “stork nest”.
A man visited the shrine. He walked through the ring of miscanthus to cleanse the — blot? (in a metaphorical meaning, pardon my poor vocabulary).
Overhead pine needles were full of raindrops.
Wooden ema plaque shows many people wishing to have babies. It is interesting that stork legend is of European origin, and kou legend here is different, but somehow it is mixed now. I guess people’s wishes transform gods in time in Japan.
Another set of plaques is for cutting bad connections. Whether it is a hated colleague, smoking, or illness, wishes are heard.
It was dreamlike moments, inside this shrine at midnight, the night that turned into my birthday. I didn’t want to leave this place.
