Shinto priests begin Summer Purification ceremony.

Four Shinto priests, headed by Kazufumi Okutani, 71 and his son Masatsugu Okutani, 41 leave their family home and walk to the heart of the Yabuhara Sanctuary in Kiso Mura village to conduct the Grand Summer Purification ceremony. The essence of the ceremony is to remove temporarily all impurities such as rational thought from ones body and mind and maximize one's sensitivities. In other words to be in a state of heightened concentration of the "here and now" and allow one's sensitivities to be replenished as they are a constant source of japanese cultural identity. Nagano prefecture. (Photo by Christopher Pillitz/Getty Images)