On August 15th, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender, it’s common to see the extreme right doing their thing at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. The same is also true for National Foundation Day on February 11th — events I’ve photographed and written briefly about before. A few favourites being this uniform-clad old man last summer, a large gathering of like-minded extremists a few years ago, and further back still, some atmospheric scenes in the snow.
So, due to them being so oddly fascinating, I did the same again on Monday. Just as they did what they usually do too.
But that’s not the whole story of course. There were many thousands of ordinary people, very ordinarily paying their respects. Plus, it has to be said, a very select few doing something that one really wouldn’t call typical at all.