Visitors offer prayers at Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo on Friday, the first business day of the year. Kanda Myojin is known as the shrine of commerce and industry.
© Japan Today
Praying for success
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Visitors offer prayers at Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo on Friday, the first business day of the year. Kanda Myojin is known as the shrine of commerce and industry.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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sengoku38
If you want success in business, you should work instead of standing in line with thousands of people!!
kwatt
It is a religion for hundreds of years.
marcels
The only success I can imagine in this photo, would be the lucky owner of this particular Shrine,He or She must be raking it in,Tax free as well i think.. Now that,s sucess!!!!!!!!
JDB829
I have done this several times. One particular memory is of Toyokawa Inari Shrine in Toyokawa, Aichi. They were letting only so many approach the shrine at a time. (because of the enormous crowds, no doubt). We ended up in the VERY FRONT ROW, and I found my 6' 3" frame being bombarded with coins ! Quite an experience, indeed !
oberst
imagine if nature calls and you are stuck in the middle of this crowd.
Jechan
and Japanese people will still insist that they have no religion. When it comes to money, however...
Thunderbird2
No different than praying to a Western God for help or success, or dropping coins into a wishing well. Don't understand why people are being so negative about the photo and the people in it.
Pontepilate
@Thunderbird2 I think the issue here is that more than 99 out of every 100 Japanese would claim no believe, or faith but in evolution. So why all the fuss for just a ritual or tradition?
binhan
When you choose not to believe in God ,you will end up believing in something lesser than God.
Fadamor
What fuss? They're just standing there. It's not like there's a melee going on.
Piotr Gierszewski
Prayers are prayers, they make people feel more comfortable; still the work has to be done.
mtwildman
This huge group of people praying for success reminds me of Koi looking up and praying for bread from the Kami crossing the bridge over a castle moat.
malfupete
i believe in Mithras
southsakai
Praying is a personal choice. It's always great to see many people at the various shrines around Japan. Hope Japan gets back on it's feet one day again.