Mitama Festival at Yasukuni Shrine

You cannot just 'remove the war criminals'. The way is explained is that each soul is like a cup of water poured into a giant bowl. How do you remove the souls of the bad ones?

because criticizing a shrine that pays respects to war criminals is not valid.

Exactly, lets have a party at at war criminals shines? Move the A class war criminals somewhere by themselves and I have no problem (I wonder which shine Abe would visit then).

your condescending comments about the shrine amount to nought. Get over it.

....because criticizing a shrine that pays respects to war criminals is not valid.

Matsuris are fantastic fun. How can anybody write negative comments...? Oh and by the way- let's get this straight- the bottom line is that Yasukuni is a memorial to Japan's war dead. Unless you have relatives who fought the Japanese in WWII, as I do, your condescending comments about the shrine amount to nought. Get over it.

Yup, must get out more. First stop will be to take in some modern dance.

i think this is one of the best thing Japan have.

wakarimasen

Japanese youngsters trying to dance to modern music less so.

really? tons of J kids are doing some very cool stuff. You should get out more.

Traditional Japanese dancing is ok. Japanese youngsters trying to dance to modern music less so.

I'm all for festivals, but please not at Yasukuni Shrine :(

Was there yesterday! Strangely no food stalls, in fact it seemed there were more foreign spectators than Japanese.

One tourist was doing his best to get one of those "artistic face shots" by standing in the middle of the dancers, pushing some out of his way to get his camera 30cm from the dancers faces. Hope that wasnt a JT photographer!

It's a nice picture. That's all. As much as I hate Yasukuni for what it represents historically, it does have its beauty as a structure and with the grounds. The yellow lanters and people dancing is nothing negative at all.

Good point, gogogo. But I don't think JT is trying to stir the pot. I have thousands, and I mean thousands, of photographs of people and places in Japan, but JT won't accept anything for consideration. Go figure.

Moderator: No, there is nothing to "go figure." It was not a good point by gogogo. The festival is one of Tokyo's most famous summer ones. And we always welcome and use photos from readers.

thepersoniamnow

Japanese dancing...a thing I will never fully understand.

It's an excuse not to have to invest the time and energy into learning to dance.

6 set moves, do them in coordination with everyone else, who also learnt the same 6 moves, and voila you've got a night's entertainment for all.

Japanese dancing...a thing I will never fully understand