Advertisement
Published: April 30th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri
It's about time I posted this...
Last night was the eve of the Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri, an annual festival which takes place at the Minakuchi shrine. The main attractions of this festival are the large Hikiyamas. These are 10 metre tall 200 year old wooden carts, decorated with hanging lanterns, curtains, gold leaf and topped by papier mache figures. Inside each cart is a group of musicians, playing drums, flutes and some metal instruments all of which are combined to make some catchy and happy traditional matsuri music.
They also set up a small marketplace in the park next to the shrine, where they serve delicious food, sell bb guns to the kids, and also have some stalls of masks and trinkets, and carnival type games. The eve of the festival is a somewhat toned down version of the main event, with only one or two carts on display. The main festival day brings many more people to minakuchi shrine, both in official capacity, and as gawkers (like me). I took my notebook along this morning, and tried to capture the moment a little bit, knowing I would forget some of my thoughts
and some of the events as the day progressed….
‘I sit now at a 3 way intersection that is currently a passageway for pedestrians, monks, and 10m tall hikiyamas. It’s the Minakuchi matsuri, and my small town has come alive. It is not so busy at this moment, but a moment ago the drummers and flutists were in full force. They climb up into these 200 year old carts (after removing their shoes of course) and play a happy melody to go along with the pace of the movement. It takes between 20 and 30 people to manoeuvre these carts through the winding streets, all pushing, pulling, yelling and somehow making their way into the shrine entrance. The musicians keep don’t miss a beat, even when their transport is bumping over gravel surfaces or being levered around to face a new direction. It is very colourful, with each cart’s team wearing a different printed robe as their uniform.
I am sitting between the shrine and the park where they have set up a carnival/marketplace (the gateballers won’t be pleased), and already the scent of takoyaki, grilled squid, corn on the cob, fried chicken and hashiyaki is making
it’s way out of the streets and into the throng of people milling around. The people are quite diverse in appearance too, ranging from young to old and from conservative to punk rock Japanese style…
I’ve just been passed by a procession of men in hakama pants and flat straw hats, some of them toting poles topped by rice paper boxes - these are covered in writing I don’t yet understand. I feel privileged to be here, and I am the subject of as many curious glances as I am giving my surroundings. Many of these glances come from my students…I hear ‘Nikky! Nikky! Nikky! And then when I ask how they are…they look at me with this stunned gaze…as if they didn’t expect me to reply. I have since heard that the last teacher was strict and didn’t enjoy speaking to the students....whereas all I want to do is get them talking!!! I know they want to speak..but they’re afraid of being wrong. Some of the students just call out whatever English they know so I hear ‘I love you’ as I’m walking down the stairs. A highschool boy on his bike stopped and said hello, and then
pointed at me and said ‘cyuuto.’ Gotta love it!’
Anyways, back to the festival…
This festival celebrates the letting of water into the rice fields (which they have now done by the way)… and they wheel the huge carts out, play traditional music with flutes and drums, and is a real sight to see. When the carts are wheeled into the shrine, they are on show for a while, and the teams prepare. The music is brought to fever pitch, a real powerful drumming beat is set, and about 30 people haul the cart past the hagama pant men around this shrine building in the fore ground, all calling out. Once they get to the back of this building, they stop in front of the back shrine building, and they stop and bow their heads in prayer before coming back around to the front of the building and pray in front of the offering.
A group of men all in white ‘happi’ robes carried the gold altar out in front of the shrine later, lashed it to these wooden bars and then carried it all around my local area. I even saw them pass from my apartment balcony!
They then carried it back around the shrine building 3 times. Once they got to the front of the back shrine building, they heaved it up and down three times while chanting, and then set off around the shrine again. What a site to see! It took about 40 men to carry this altar as well.
All in all this was my most ‘Japanese’ experience of Japan. Women in kimono, men in traditional garb, folk music…priests/monks in Shinto ceremonial robes. Wow. They also lit lanterns which hang from the carts at night which added a whole new dimension to the spectacle. It was such a pleasure to see that and experience that…and now I’m hanging out for the next festival!
xxx
Until next time,
Nihon Nikky.
See more festival pictures at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34580&l=44305&id=542646880
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0287s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb