People pulling a sacred timber felled in the previous day's Misomahajimesai, an early ceremony of the Shikinen Sengu ritual to rebuild main structures of the Ise Jingu shrine for Shinto deities, during a procession in local celebrations in Agematsu, central Japan. - AP
ISE, Japan: Deep in the forests of the Japanese Alps, Shinto priests keep watch as woodsmen dressed in ceremonial white chop their axes into two ancient cypress trees, timing their swings so that they strike from three directions.
An hour later, the head woodcutter shouts, "A tree is falling!” as one of the 300-year-old trees crashes down, the forest echoing with a deep crack. A moment after, the other cypress topples over.
