In Japan, waterfalls are more than beautiful cascades – they shape ritual and belief, belong to a landscape sustained by flowing water, and have long stirred the artistic imagination, from Bashō’s poems to Hokusai’s woodblock prints.
Shinto
Nakada Hadaka Matsuri
In Nakada, on the edge of Nagoya, men scramble again and again up slick bamboo poles in a muddy paddy field, sliding back into the mire until the poles finally give way – a small, rough-edged purification rite aimed at driving off bad luck in the yakudoshi years.