When we were in Japan last year, we were lucky enough to coincide our visits with a number of matsuri (festivals). Our first such experience was in the township of Takayama, a quaint little village in the mountainous Hida region of the Gifu prefecture – five hours from Tokyo by train.
The Autumn Hachiman Matusri is the annual celebration of the Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine. In essence it is a procession of a dozen heavily decorated yatai (festival floats) that are paraded/pulled through the streets (usually by sake soddled citizens) over the course of a couple of days.
The yatai (floats) are absolutely huge, and take real effort to move and manoeuvre. This poor gent obviously provided aesthetic as opposed to any real pulling power.
Several of the floats are installed with karakuri ningyo, mechanical marionettes that move and dance by pulling on ropes and levers within the float. This is a very popular performance, and unfortunately I couldn’t get close enough to snap a good shot. But they were lovely to watch, even from our distance away.
On the evening of the first day the yatai (floats) are pulled through the streets of the old town. The yomatsuri (evening festival) is also a highlight – the cacophany of beating drums, clapping hands, chanting and singing enlivens everyone into a festivitous mood. It was awesome.
Now you are probably saying to yourself – but Mellie, why aren’t you talking about food? Well the next few posts will be dedicated to looking at the food we found in this gorgeous little township, from the markets to the festival street food.
