Matsuyama Festival

Matsuyama Festival

Ed with Mickey mouse ears.

May 1st was the Musha Gyoretsu - Samurai parade - in Matsuyama.  It apparently dates back to when the Matsuyama clan ruled in these parts.  The parade involves Matsuyama's junior high school kids, along with some extremely important (and handsome)adults, dressing up as samurai or priests and retracing the old boundaries of Matsuyama castle (of which there now remains only the Otemon - the old castle gate).  Some of the luckier kids also get to carry a portable shrine to all corners of the town.   So, this year the samurai VIP passes went to me and my brother, Stefan, who up until then had only been in Japan for 4 days.  We assembled in the town gym at 11.00 which gave the kids the opportunity to talk (and/or run away from) my brother and munch on some onigiri before we were assigned our costumes.  Stef and I were allocated samurai costumes and our own personal dresser (or two), which was quite necessary, as there was quite a lot of costume to put on, even before they strapped on the armour and swords.

I was quite pleased with my particular suit - very dashing, I thought - before they produced the helmet that I had to wear.  Not only did it obscure almost all of my face (not good for those souvenir photos) but it also sported a dodgy white moustache that made it look as though I'd just drunk too deeply from a pint of Guinness... and Mickey Mouse ears.   Maybe it was designed to cause hysteria among opposing samurai by making them laugh so much they couldn't fight.  I'm not sure.

Anyways, at 1pm we all got going.  We did a practice lap or 2 of the gym to make sure we could bear the weight of the armour (about 15 kilos, I was told), then headed through the town behind a samurai on a horse.  It took about 45 minutes to get to the Otemon where there was some kind of ceremony that I couldn't see because, being the VIP that I am, I was at the back of the parade.  When the ceremony was over, we carried on walking for another couple of hours, before we finally made our way back to the gym.

Stef getting dressed.

Although it wasn't a bundle of laughs throughout - the armour and particularly the straw shoes that were too small even for most of the Japanese men were a tad uncomfortable - it was a great experience, and allowed me to see a lot more of the town of Matsuyama (I now know where the ramen shop is, I'm pleased to say).  Also it was quite amusing seeing people's faces when they saw my brother; some had no idea who he was ("gaijin da!"), some clicked when they saw me (well, what they could see of me through my mask), and some just thought he was me.  One of my 3-nensei from last year went up to him, took his photo with her keitai, and said "Edo, hisashiburi!" From behind, I tried to shout, "No, I'm Edo!" but I think the dodgy moustache muffled the sound and she walked off none the wiser.

Whether I'll do it again next year, I'm not sure (definitely not if they give me the Grandpa Mouse costume again), but I'm really pleased that my brother and I were allowed to participate this year.