Some salt by the entrance of Japanese restaurant

This is an entrance of a traditional Japanese restaurant. By both sides of the entrance is put some salt on the white small dishes.

The salt is put to purify the restaurant to welcome guests. It also means to keeps the dirty from there. The host throw out some salt at the entrance just after unwelcome guests go out of the restaurant to keep them away.

Sumo, Japanese-style wrestling, wrestlers also throw out some salt before they play the game. It also means that the ring is sacred place for them. Sumo derives from a kind of festival of Shinto, Japanese animistic religion. Shinto dislike the dirty very much.

Oh, be careful not to lick the salt by the entrance even if Japanese cuisine don't have much taste!!