In Japan, it’s customary to start off the new year be going to a Shinto shrine to pray for good fortune in the new year. While many are thought to convey a vague blessing of overall prosperity, some ...

TOKYO (AP) — Dozens of people soaked and splashed themselves in painfully icy cold water on Saturday in a pool at a Tokyo shrine, adhering to Japanese tradition to purify the soul and pray for good ...

YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — Hundreds of residents gathered at Kurihama beach outside Tokyo over the weekend to pray for marine safety in a summer festival that fuses sacred ritual and seaside spectacle. As ...

ISE, Japan — Deep in the forests of the Japanese Alps, Shinto priests keep watch as woodsmen dressed in ceremonial white chop their axes into two ancient cypress trees, timing their swings so that ...

ISE, Japan — The steady crowds cross an arched bridge and follow a pebbled path into a forest of towering cypress trees, bowing before a simple gate that stands between them and the holiest place in ...