A senior priest at a shrine in Japan's Greater Tokyo Area wears a homemade panda mask in an attempt to attract visitors to the religious site.

Miwako Kojima of Aruka Shrine in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, decided to bring the shrine's mascot, a panda, to life by creating a mask from clay, masking tape and acrylic paint.

The panda priest uses the costume to lighten up the mood and create a friendly face for the younger visitors.

"I used to feel hot when I needed to keep wearing the mask for a long time in the hot summer," Kojima says in the video, which has English subtitles. "Now I tuck a mini-fan inside it and keep cool when the weather is hot."

This video was filmed on March 25.

A senior priest of Aruka Shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture, Miwako Kojima publicizes the shrine by wearing a handmade mask. It is a very old shrine being described in a book "Engishiki" completed in 927 that listed all the shrines existing at the time. The mask is made by putting clay from a 100-yen shop "Daiso" on, applying acrylic paint, drawing eyes and a mouth with masking tapes, and finishing with an anti-shine spray. In addition to panda, there are the masks of a red panda, green onion, squid, octopus, shrine maiden, and this year's zodiac animal, boar and she is currently making a cat mask.