This photo was taken with my phone, however. I had been taking video with the phone, then the priest started throwing confetti in the air, and I wanted to get a shot of that but didn't have my good camera ready.
What really got me about these priests, though, was the clogs they were wearing. I don't remember having seen them before. Was it just this particular shrine? Then, when I thought about it, I realized I had never seen a Shinto priest dressed for outside before. I have often seen them in shrines, performing their various duties, but inside they do not wear shoes.
They are wonderful clogs. There is something fantastically arty about them. Impractical, but arty.
The beautiful little girl doing the lie-down strike was determined to not respond to anybody. People asked her if she was all right, and she ignored them. Her mother waited patiently. I looked at her, then aimed my camera and clicked. Her expression did not change.
Then I squatted down and showed her the picture on the back of my camera. She stared at it, and one corner of her mouth twitched.
I think I might have been witnessing a quiet tantrum.
4 comments:
The little girl is a real cutie. I'd have loved quiet tantrums when my kids were small, but alas, they were very loud.
The priest's clogs look massively uncomfortable!
I am fascinated by those clogs! Scandinavian clogs are more comfortable than they look because on the inside they're carved to fit the foot (including a hollow for the big toe to lie in). I wonder if the priests' clogs are similar.
And good for the girl to stay loyal to her quiet tantrum! Some days, you just have to have those. :-)
I don't think the clogs are curved. I can't find a good description of them, but from what i can see from pictures on the web they look pretty flat. This one, for example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/only1tanuki/5388082417/
And here's a place that makes them. They look pretty flat, to me. But they use that cotton arrangement stuffed over the foot to hold them on, it seems:
http://www.kippo.or.jp/e/culture/indus/crafts/kutu.html
They look like little boats. Or ... cribs for elf babies!
Very interesting. They look like they may be carved out of a single block of wood.
Post a Comment