There’s often doubt cast on the authenticity of monks sometimes seen praying on Tokyo’s streets, with suspicions that more than a few of them are elaborately dressed fraudsters merely after some money; the validity of either the doubters, or indeed those possibly doing the praying, I personally have no way of proving.
So, with this in mind, and considering that he was photographed in Tokyo’s glitzy and brand-driven Ginza district, this particular man may well have been preoccupied with nothing more spiritual than a Prada emblazoned bag, but, for reasons I can’t really explain, I think he could be for real.
