This month, May 2010, the National Geographic website features a 18-image slideshow titled "Sacred Waters", celebrating the role of water in spiritual traditions around the world.
Slide number 15 is a powerful evocation of one of the central rites of one of IARF's Japanese member groups, the Tsubaki Grand Shrine.
The photo caption reads:
"The sacred waterfall at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture, Japan, washes away impurities in the Shinto ritual known as misogi shuho, which celebrates the communion among worshipper, waterfall, and the creative life force of the universe".
Please go there from here.
