• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

  • Photowalks
  • Portfolio
  • About/Contact
  • Support
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • RSS

Jun 29 2009 9 Comments

All you need is love

Spread around the country there are temples and shrines for all kinds of things, from not failing a test to fertility and phenomenal phalluses. Yet even in Japan, where babies aren’t exactly bountiful, Jishu shrine’s offer of everlasting love still seems more unlikely than landing a little ‘un.

Not, or course, that such cynicism stops young hopefuls from nervously tackling the task of navigating their way between the temple’s two presumably super-powered stones with their eyes firmly shut.

Japanese love shrine

As a successful bid, hence their struggles, is said to bring a life filled with happiness instead of heartbreak.

Japanese love shrine

Which these two, perhaps foolishly, think they’ve found.

Japanese love shrine

Laughably believing that love is all you need.

Categorized: Photography, Religion

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Paul says

    6/29/2009 at 11:37 pm

    What are those lasses pretending to hold? And why does it take two of them?

    GIRTH, that’s why.

    Reply
  2. The Envoy says

    6/30/2009 at 2:01 am

    Sometimes hope (or delusion) is all that keeps us going.

    Reply
  3. Matt says

    6/30/2009 at 2:17 am

    Now all i have to do is hang around and bump into a cute one as they make that walk…

    Reply
  4. Taylor says

    6/30/2009 at 2:42 am

    While subscribing to this blog I’ve learned to avoid the forced poetry and enjoy the photos alone instead. On a lark I decided to read the superfluous writing and found it to be smug and condescending, but spoken through the shallow voice of cynicism. It seems a little self serving as the photographer to take pictures, especially like the last one where the people are obviously posing for you, then shun them for doing so. As the author of the photo and it’s context, then your commentary about the photo that you took; it makes me question who is more foolishly deluded, you or your subjects?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/30/2009 at 8:40 am

      The writing style and who is the more deluded are definitely up for discussion, but your argument about the last photo isn’t, at least in regards to them posing for me, as it’s quite obvious they aren’t.

      Reply
      • Taylor says

        6/30/2009 at 9:55 am

        It’s hard for me to see how those girls weren’t aware of the white dude with the camera right behind the girl they were looking at. Even still, in photography the narrative voice lies so heavily in the photographer, the way they shoot and the way they contextualize the shot… I’ve had enough photo theory from art school to rot my mind to it all. I just wasn’t on board with your narrative.

        Reply
        • Lee says

          6/30/2009 at 10:08 am

          That’s fair enough. To be honest, the narrative was basically used as just a brief explanation of what they were doing, with a Beatles lyric (minus one ‘love’) used as the title and closing line, meaning the cynicism, at least on this post, was forced.

          But back to the picture. As the girls were so engrossed in getting the picture right, and in the Kiyomizu-dera complex there are so many people with cameras (including lots of white folk), they were utterly oblivious. Something that to be honest, made a nice change.

          Reply
  5. amy says

    6/30/2009 at 11:16 am

    Taylor, a few words on your art school hubris: I “found it to be smug and condescending, but spoken through the shallow voice of cynicism.”

    Reply
    • Taylor says

      6/30/2009 at 1:47 pm

      Touché. Did you say that to be witty, or because you actually disagree with what I’m saying? I genuinely was not on board with the text surrounding the photos in this post, and I wouldn’t have commented if I didn’t care and appreciate Lee’s photos and contributions. It’s easy to write a witty remark and bounce, but I’d like to talk about this and I really appreciate that Lee was willing to respond.

      Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Copyright © 2022 · Tokyo Times