{"id":1643,"date":"2010-10-27T00:03:09","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T15:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-10-27\/1643"},"modified":"2010-10-27T23:51:55","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T14:51:55","slug":"a-bit-of-tai-chi-at-the-heian-shrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-10-27\/1643","title":{"rendered":"A Bit of Tai Chi at the Heian Shrine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 280 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n“Energy \/ Spirit”<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n“Strength”<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 220 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLots of Tai Chi at the Heian Shrine<\/span>\nKyoto, Japan\n<\/div>\n\n

There was a short event at the Heian Shrine the other day that involved\nsome 600 tai chi practitioners from around the country, doing a short<\/span>\nroutine at the shrine to, as it was told to me, show the gods their\nperformance in the hope that it would please them.<\/p>\n\n

Now that I think about it, I don't know of any other shrine that has a\ncourtyard<\/span> large enough to handle numbers like this.... it's a lot<\/span> of\npeople, so first they had to get them all in...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDucky Crossing<\/span>\nlong parade from a staging area at a nearby<\/span> park pauses to let people cross\n<\/div>\n\n

The young girl in kimono has probably just come from a\nshichi-go-san<\/i> event, which fill a shrine's<\/span> autumn weekends with cute kids in kimono<\/a>\n(including my own kid<\/a>\nlast year).<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 58 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nStreaming In<\/span>\nthe white signs with kanji are to mark each group's location\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 58 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nGetting Set Up<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/4.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nInconsiderate<\/span>\nthese three ladies ruined the wide shots for the entire phalanx of photographers\n<\/div>\n\n

Sigh. At least<\/span> they didn't decide to wander in through the group!<\/p>\n\n

I was forced to abandon wide-angle shots, so went in for the zoom...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/6, ISO 280 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nStarting the Routine<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFree Show<\/span>\nI'm sure that most shrine visitors had no idea what was going on\n( I didn't<\/span> know too much what was going on either, but at least I'd had a few<\/span> minutes forewarning )<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 290 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nReverse Angle<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

After the five-minute routine was done, they filed out and that was that.<\/p>\n\n

I wonder whether there are any other shrines in Japan with courtyards\nthis big? The owners<\/span> of the shrine use it for all kinds of things, such as music and art\nperformances, a large<\/span> Setsubun event<\/a>, which\nitself includes an intense\nburn<\/a> of tens of thousands of wooden wish offerings. Then, of course, there are\nthe innumerable portraits taken, such as my family portrait<\/a> last year,\nlots of kids in kimono<\/a>, and the\nweddings<\/a> that fill the weekends.<\/p>\n\n

But my favorite photo here in the courtyard has just one person<\/a> in it.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a short event at the Heian Shrine the other day that involved some 600 tai chi practitioners from around the country, doing a short routine at the shrine to, as it was told to me, show the gods their performance in the hope that it would please them.<\/p>

Now that I think about it, I don't know of any other shrine that has a courtyard large enough to handle numbers like this.... it's a lot of people, so first they had to get them all in...<\/p>

The young girl in kimono has probably just come from a shichi-go-san [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}