Japan definitely has an artistic, creative side to it, and Haruki Murakami once said (or wrote) something to the effect that "the Japanese are not exactly creative, but when they are, they are really creative". Something like that, anyway : generally, the Japanese don't do things halfway.

In the past few weeks there have been quite a few festivals, artistic events, and so on, which are always great places to take a camera. Here then are some shots representing the creative side of Japan.

Pre-Halloween cosplay event

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This was some kind of play performed without words to the background of free jazz. I don't know what it was about: it may have been some kind of Japanese myth which I'm not familiar with. It was pretty entertaining, anyway.

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The following is a performance very similar to one I shot several years ago at the same event: a group of body-painted dancers. It is a truly impressive performance in every way, which is more than can be said of my first efforts to shoot it back then. This time, with the impressive light-gathering capability of the 45 1.8 and the Olympus' superb stabilistation, (as well as better post processing abilities) the pictures came out quite a bit sharper.

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The "traditionalists" part of the title refers to a demonstration of what is called, in Japanese, 古武道, literally "old martial arts". This was given at Atsuta shrine, which is one of the three major Shinto shrines in the country. While one could understand raising an eyebrow at the inclusion of aikido (which is hardly "old"), it was interesting to watch, not only for the two non-Japanese who participated.

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Naginata, a bladed spear generally practiced by women:

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That's it for this entry, but I went hiking in the Japanese alps last week so there will be a fairly major entry or two on that coming up in due course.

Thanks for looking!