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Niitsu Matsuri! |
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Matsuri is Japanese for "festival." They have many matsuri in Japan. If you tried hard enough, you could probably find a Matsuri for every week of the year. And the real kicker is that they're always a pretty big deal. I think we'd eventually bore of them in America, but these folks just keep on going! Many of the women/girls of all ages come out in nice kimono or yukata (a light-weight summer kimono) with the wooden sandals and everything. And they really party at these things too. On this page, I have included a combination of pictures from two festivals I attended in the same week in Niitsu. I believe they were part of a single week-long celebration. In addition to these pics, click here for some kids in kimono. |
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The gathered masses A local jr. high school kendo (japanese fencing) club |
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Crowds of girls in kimono and yukata (a light summer kimono) |
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This is a traditional Niitsu dance for the O-Bon matsuri (festival for the dead). The idea is that on this night, the spirits of ancestors are out, and by doing this dance, we can dance with them. Yes, that's me doing the dance too, much to the elation of many locals, especially the older ladies (one stopped me and profusely told me how well I'd done). Like all Japanese festivals, it lasted a very long time--almost two hours of this very slow dance. |
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| Below: Some pictures of the very large shrines they pulled through the streests on the last night of the matsuri. There were several of these, and they took about 4 hours to travel maybe a mile or two, because they kept going back and forth, gradually making their way forward. I don't want to complain about the parades I've done anymore... |
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Japan from my eyes. This was taken at my eye level, looking straight ahead. |
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Joe, Pat, & Tania, three of several other ALTs pulling one of the shrines. |
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Pulling a U-turn...they did this a lot. Then they ran at a dead sprint back the way they came. What was fun was watching them try to stop after that... |
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The temple that cared for the shrine my fellow gaijin friends were hauling. |
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