Surely the only future event that this palm reader can see with any certainty is that she’ll get paid 1,000 yen. Yet such scepticism aside, she still made for an interesting sight — for some.
A Japanese palm reader plying her trade in Tokyo
Photographs from a small group of islands
Hans ter Horst says
I see them everywhere in Japan, more then several years ago, they’re queuing up for this old man here in Kawagoe so he must be pretty good, you would think. 🙂 I’m a strong believer in science although I do like the spiritual feelings of a visit to a shrine or temple. I also do know that palm readers, like so many others, use cold readings to ply their trade and it is a bit sad to see people take it for real. There is a $1,000,000 to be collected for anybody who has a real, scientifically proven gift, but nobody has been able to claim it yet.
Meesiam says
Perhaps you should view palm reading as an inexact science… something like economics… there are principles to predict various possible outcomes… sometimes, the outcome is the one predicted and sometimes, it goes the other way.
Lee says
I’m a total nonbeliever, and like James Randi and his $1,000,000 challenge, I’d need concrete evidence before believing anything like palm reading. That said, considering what’s happened economically over the last few years, and continues to go on in Europe, I’m probably now more inclined to believe a palm reader than an economist!
Time for the man in Kawagoe to step up to the plate maybe?!
AV says
Hm… ‘guess you could say that economics is the art of cold reading economists !
All claims of palm prints charting fate dully overlooked, I’d credit these old palm readers with knowing a thing or two of how to be right about things they cannot possibly know. One could joke about economics trying the same; in the right crowd, it would make a good joke [much of the object of economics is unobservable, and we lot know it – ].
Matt says
Maybe she was predicting an attractive and stylish lady was about to appear.
Lee says
Haha, now that would have been something!
Ed says
Agree with Matt. For whatever reason the subjects in the middle and the right of the picture look more central/mystical/dynamic to me.
Lee says
Yeah, I totally agree. The palm reader really should be the main focus, but she’s not. Not at all, really. Admittedly that’s not what I planned (I was just looking to have the centre woman in the background), but it makes for an interesting result. Far more interesting than it would have been without them that’s for sure.
Willy says
I remember having a discussion with some of my students over there once about the fortune tellers/palm readers etc… the seemed to find that Japanese people with relationship problems etc would rather one of these services than a regular psychologist… Well, at ten bucks a pop.. its definitely cheaper…
Lee says
Definitely cheaper, and I presume you are much more likely to hear what you want to hear…