OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture--"Shichi-Go-San" is a traditional rite of passage and day of festivities in Japan for girls aged 3 and 7, and boys aged 3 and 5. It is held each November.
OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture--"Shichi-Go-San" is a traditional rite of passage and day of festivities in Japan for girls aged 3 and 7, and boys aged 3 and 5. It is held each November.
Children who will mark those birthdays within the year may also take part.
On Nov. 4, volunteers presented children in an area heavily hit by the March 11 tsunami with a commemorative photography session in a temporary housing complex in this northeastern city.
Four children, aged 4 to 5, assembled in a meeting hall in the Nagaisawa temporary housing complex. Local amateur photographers pictured them in a makeshift studio, where walls were covered with cloth and lighting equipment for construction work was used.
Riku Nishiyama, 4, wore a tie for the occasion.
"I feel relieved because we have been able to take a beautiful commemorative photo, although we have not been able to visit a shrine for the occasion," said Riku's mother Satoko, 47, whose house was swept away by the tsunami.