Great Spring Festival at Taikodani Inari Shrine

 

Shunki Taisai translates to "Great Spring Festival," although, as far as I can tell, it is not a very common event.

In May 2011 we went down to Taikodani Inari Shrine in Tsuwano for their Shunki Taisai. As far as I know, they have not held one since.

It was quite a grand affair, with numerous priests, mikos, and representatives of the town dressed in samurai outfits.

I was very surprised to see some of the miko wearing swords.... don't think I have seen that before...

a Himorogi was set up in the shrines open courtyard. A himorogi is an area demarcated with 4 bamboos with shimenawa. It is believed this was the form shrines took in ancient times before they utilized buildings a la Buddhism.

First, the miko purified each other and then the townsmen.

Then it was the turn of the priests....

One of the great things about Tsuwano is that there are never crowds, so events such as this, or the Heron Dance or even Yabusame, you can get close to the action, not view things from a distance at the back of a crowd like at the major tourist destinations...

All the participants lined up and awaited the Guji, head priest.

The Guji arrives under the shade of a ceremonial parasol....

Then all the participants follow in procession and line up inside the himorogi...

Offerings are made and norito are read....

The guji then leads the procession up into the main hall of the shrine where further rituals are held.

later in the afternoon we watched kagura in a building half-way down the hill belwo the shrine...

The previous post in this series on Tsuwano was on the Taikodani Inari Shrine where this festival took place.

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Innoshima Suigun Sea Festival

 

Innoshima, an island in the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku, is one of the places most associated with the Murakami, a warrior clan of feudal Japan either called pirates or navy, depending on who was writing and when.

There are three summer festivals on Innoshima, the first in late July or early August involves a gathering of "samurai" in full regalia and then fireworks. The second, the Fire Festival, takes place towards the end of August and involves the same samurai carrying huge torches, a local dance, and then once again fireworks.

The final festival takes place the day following the Fire Festival, and this is the boat racing. Like the other two festivals, it takes place on Shimanami Beach.

The boats are traditional wooden boats known as Kohayo. Some sources suggest these were high-speed boats used for messengers, but other sources have them used in combat with archers on board.

Up to 50 teams take part and heats are held throughout the day, leading to a grand final.

Each boat has a crew of 16, 14 rowers, a drummer, and the helmsman.

There are races for school teams and women's teams, but the highlight is the men's team final.

I was climbing Mount Shirataki when I saw the festival taking place, so unfortunately, the shots were all taken from far away.

The previous post in this series on day 12 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon pilgrimage was on the walk from Onomichi to Innoshima.

Fukuyama Yosakoi

Fukuyama Yosakoi

After exploring Tomonoura I headed back into downtown Fukuyama one more time and went to part of the second nights festiviies of the Fukuyama Summer Festival.

The performers were gathering outside the library in Central Park.

Niagari Odori dancers in their traditional outfits were milling around so I guess there would be more of that later, but for now, everyone was preparing for the Yosakoi dancing.

Yosakoi is a fairly new type of dance in Japan, invented in Kochi in the early 1950's it has become very popular throughout Japan and has even spread abroad.

Compared to most traditional Japanese dances, Yosakoi is wildly energetic and exciting.

The costumes are also very colourful and tending towards the flamboyant.

The rules are quite loose and so dancers can be quite creative in choreographing their routines.

The music is almost always prerecorded and quite varied as the rule is that just "some" of the original Yosakai song should be included....

Many Yosakoi teams utilize a  very large flag or flags

Another rule is that dancers must carry or use naruko, a kind of clacker used originally as bird scarers.

Earlier I posted on the previous evenings Niagari Odori dancing

The previous post in thi series on day 10 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the very large Fukuyama Hachimangu Shrine with 30 colourful photos.

Goods From Japan