Some years ago, I remember visiting a shinto shrine in Tokyo and being amused when I came across a priest who was chanting as he waved his stick with paper streamers across a brand new company car and chanted as company employees stood and watched. The car trunk and hood were both open so the priest could bless both the engine and the inside of the car. Shinto is often associated with the new so Japanese typically have Shinto weddings. Since Buddhism is associated with the afterlife, funerals usually take place at Buddhist temples. Well I just came across a picture from 1970 that shows a priest giving a blessing to the Helm Yamate Residences apartment building my father built on the bluff that year not far from minato-no-mieru-oka koen. (The park from which he building still stands but now has a different name.
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