Prayer Paper

I took this in the courtyard of a small temple in the Shinagawa neighborhood of Tokyo. The paper is called "osame fuda", or prayer paper. Pilgrims to a shrine write their prayers, wishes, and hopes on these slips of paper then tie them to branches of a tree. They are symbolically "leaving behind" their prayers, cares, and worries.
I thought the starkness of the prayer paper against the fuzzy branches of the tree and the open sky was a dramatic shot. It didn't strike me until I uploaded the picture, but this particular prayer paper has the same general shape as Japan itself--the knot at the top resembles the northernmost island of Hokkaido, and the rest of it has the vague "J" shape of the rest of the island.

I also thought black and white would be more dramatic--although, to be honest, the sky was so grey that day that there's very little difference between the B&W and color.

Another picture tomorrow...