Aki Mutsuri 2007

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If life is just about eating, sleeping and other such things, and within that doing stuff to fill the time, then this is what I call great time filler.

Yes, its was that time of year again. Who could have thought that you could top such an experience as that of last years Aki Matsuri (Autumn Festival), but this year did just that.

The summer was still lingering on as the day for my second year of my island most important, or at least most fun, festival loomed.

IN fact we were still brushing the 30 degree mark as we began to enter October, and I knew that I would have to be drinking at least twice the amount of beer as last year to replace that sweated out.

However, being my and of possibly of any foreign teachers, last year on the island, the committee in charge of autumn festival, and so many other goings on the island, had in store for me a far grander idea in mind.

“Do you know Tengu?” said my principal, one morning. “Well, no. Is it like a penguin?” I replied as a joke.
“Oh, yes, yes.” He said, and gesture the shape of a long Pinocchio nose to me.
“This year, at Aki Matsuri, you are the Tengu!”

Suddenly, I had a flashback of a man dressed in a bright gold wig, garishly golden kimono and getta, brandishing a spear. All topped off with a very old looking demon-like mask with a nose that can only be described as phallic.

This is the Tengu, or ‘heavenly Dog’

Buts that enough from me, lets here what Prof. Wikipdia has to say on the matter.

Well, “Tengu (天狗? "heavenly dogs") are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai (monster-spirits) and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami (revered spirits or gods). Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon, the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is practically the tengu's defining characteristic in the popular imagination.
Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice known as Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the distinctive garb of its followers, the yamabushi.
The term tengu and the characters used to write it are borrowed from the name of a fierce demon from Chinese folklore called tiāngoǔ. Chinese literature assigns this creature a variety of descriptions, but most often it is a fierce and anthropophagous canine monster that resembles a shooting star or comet. It makes a noise like thunder and brings war wherever it falls. One account from the Shù Yì Jì (述異記, "A Collection of Bizarre Stories"), written in 1791, describes a dog-like tiāngoǔ with a sharp beak and an upright posture, but usually tiāngoǔ bear little resemblance to their Japanese counterparts.
A later version of the Kujiki, an ancient Japanese historical text, writes the name of Amanozako, a monstrous female deity born from the god Susanoo's spat-out ferocity, with characters meaning tengu deity (天狗神). The book describes Amanozako as a raging creature capable of flight, with the body of a human, the head of a beast, a long nose, long ears, and long teeth that can chew through swords. An 18th century book called the Tengu Meigikō (天狗名義考?) suggests that this goddess may be the true predecessor of the tengu, but the date and authenticity of the Kujiki, and of that edition in particular, remain disputed.


Interesting stuff indeed. It seemed that I was stepping into a world of mystical beast, ancient legend, penis shaped noses… It was a scary but intriguing world, and I felt that there was nothing I couldn’t accomplish at a Japanese festival, with a large amount of alcohol and shouting.

It stood to reason that, I would spend the following weekend, in much the same way as I sent a lot of my time in Japan, standing out like a sore thumb and scaring children.

Lets Gooooo!!





Yes.

Following on from the sports day, a finishing up party was held in the community centre where I work to give everyone a chance to wind down after around 2 months of preparing for the event.

The teachers and I were gathered together with various heads of the community; Shousuke, who gave me Denis a ride on his boat, Hamada san, my next door neighbor, Hirohio my Boss when I arrived and other older members, I had never spoken to.

As the teachers left to catch their boats home, I was left as the centre of attention with all my fellow Ikinites.

The sake flowed and suddenly I realized that I was in the middle of a town meeting.

Not one of the Japanese style, prepared in advanced and drawn out meetings, but something age old and more grass roots.

Only men were present and there was serious arguing on the fundamentals of the coming Aki Matsuris that had dated back hundreds of years and probably changed very little.
Tempers were enraged and everyone took there turn at shouting at everyone else.
All people were represented as well, from each district I noticed and each profession. The head of the Fishing bureau, and ex-yakuza type guy from the shipyards.

As I sat there in the middle of it hearing even my name being thrown around in a style, reminiscent of Japanese parliament, I thought “I wonder how many people get to see this?”
The equivalent being that of the country pub meeting in the hamlets Britain’s countryside

At one point the shipyard man seemed to reach a crescendo and sttod up, clearly feeling he had said all that needed to be said and walked out, followed by his very large entourage of from the shipyard (who you wouldn’t want to mess with).

Him gone, the meeting calmed down and I began to get sleepy. The cup sake to was starting to get me too drunk and I made my excuses and left.
Apparently I called Denis and taking about the bicycle I would buy and tour Japan with, and name “The Flying Croissant”.

2 Days later and I had to awake an hour before everyone on the Sunday morning to get changed into the Tengu attire. Having gone to bed at around one the previous night and rising at 4:30 in the dark, I felt a little apprehensive arrive once again at the temple.

I was very early in fact and felt slightly guilty that I hadn’t once seen the priest in the year since I last saw her after she was so nice to me.

However, there was no time to waste and as I donned the rather short white kimono and hakama, and struggled with the wig (which would prove to be the biggest problem of all), people began to pour in red faced and tired looking, in the familiar all white attire of the previous year.



A saucer of sake and then we were back off up to the top of the hill fr the opening ceremony.
I have to say I was secretly very relieved when I watch that Mikoshi being lifted again, and remembered how heavy it was, to be walking it this year.

It was at this point also that I realized that a day of walking around drunk in 2 pronged Japanese wooden getta, would be a good way to get very badly injured, and so to the easy way out with the holiest pair of Nikes I could find.


And with hat we set off.

This wig seemed to be made of either real human, or horse hair. And a2 feet long it was very hot and would stay on, however, hard I tried.
It was also still very humid and in fact there would be a couple more weeks of summer like temperature in store for us, and so between the beer, wig and heat I began to fell very tired indeed.

Now, ‘what does a Tengu actually do’ I hear you cry. Well, aside from generally looking like hell on legs, My main job was to run screaming, at children still within the generally scared of anything strange age range, and scared them until they cried.

This was my first time of course and so I was a little apprehensive and at first. And I was also no sure whether even young infants would scream with terror of laughter. However, I thought I would give it a try.

You would be amazed at how much you get into it, really. You should give it try. Especially after the 10th or so beer, you find that scaring children becomes like switching on the kettle.

I began at first with a rather shallow early morning “graaahhhh….” Which produced a mixture of surprise and amazement but definitely no fear, but by the end of the day I was literally chasing kids whole blocks and into there houses, screaming and waving my spear around bmy head like lunatic barbarian!

IN fact as the day went on I was running out of children to scare as they litterealy began running and screaming, in genuine terror at the sight of me.

I thing I did the Tengu role proud, in fact I seemed to be getting a grate reception fomr the other people on the procession. The way I saw it, if your going to do it, you better do it right.

“Isn’t it going a little bit far Nick? They are only children?” I here you say to which I say “STOP YOUR WHINNING YOU BIG WET FLANNEL, STRIKE THE FEAR OF GOD INTO FROM THEM I TELL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The Tengu is suppose to represent the wicked and god fearing side of the Shinto religion, that is supposed to ingrain a lastly fear of god and the spirit world for the rest of ones days.
Up until the age of 4, kids have probably not been confronted with something so bright and strange and loud, and certainly not so blonde!!! They are even more surprised when unlike the monsters on TV, it continues to come after them and, and even MORE surprised as there parents drag them back to the beast after they hide in the house under the table.

This religious ritual is part of the Shinto and religion, and I have to say when I first saw it on TV once in a different prefecture, I thought, ‘My god! That’s it a bit much isn’t it?!”

But who am I to stand in the way of ones traditions, and mess with another culture. In fact whilst I am at it, let’s make this the most balls to the wall, terrifying Tengu in the island history. I even got some of my student whop knew very well it was me, to doubt the world they lived in.

As you can tell I enjoyed a lot, and I was told by my drunken lifters, I was the best Tengu they have ever had!
I felt like Genghis at the head of a on invading hoard!!! There was certainly something very primeval about it all; chanting, drinking, falling over, banging of drums, and all with this golden beast at the front.

Hmm.

I was beginning to run out of kids to scare, possibly because they had all fled, or possibly because it was their nap times…..
Questions is will I be judged as a bad man by the god in my own society, whereas I am revered as a god I this one.

The only answer of course is to join the Jesus Army when I return and spend the rest of the time annoying commuters.




Scaring children is of course hungry work, and we took abreak around 5, before once again heading up for the finale back at the shrine.

Here I was to change out of my robes and lift the shrine for he last couple of hours with my fellow white clad lifter.

This 2 hours alone managed to give me a saw back for weeks and give me a big gash on my back.

Its heavy.

I was drunk.

I love Aki Matsuri.

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Photos

"These boots weren't made for walkin'"
My Tengu Geta

Tight squeezes
Almost falling down the slope by my house on the first step of lugging the Danjiri around Ikina.
It is soon transfered to a set of wheels as it weighs a hell of a lot.

Tengu
Behold the beast that was Nick for a day.
The "heavenly dog" is both a bad warmongere and a superpowered dogooder who it is best ot keep on ones side.
Just like me.

miako san
these were my onterage this year and were the next year of the elementarie schools 6th year. Make me fell like a year and truly gone full circle as this was the thing that I think started setting the standard when arrived in Japan.

The mikoshi san
I was in the shoes last year, and I ahve to say that i was pretty happy to not be lifting again. A experience that is best done once. However, i did lift that evening a bit but it was nothing to the backbreaking last year.

The danjiri Taiko drummers
For children, they are amazingly good at keeping a beat going for a day.

Opening Ceremony
About 6.00am as the sun rose, our priest read the prayers to send us off on a long day...

A job for Life
Basically, my role was to accompany the shrine around the island, and when ever I saw a child around the 4 years and under age to run and them cackling and screaming and waving my spea at them until they eventually cried. They all cried. However, long it took. Great job.

Finale
once again by this time I had been up since 4 in the morning and drinking heavily since 6 in the morning and so by 10 that evening the camera started to get a little wobbly and the final lifting of the shrine casued me to cut up and bruise my shoulders quite badly. It was great!!