(I attended this festival last month, but I took so many photos that it took me a long time to go through them). I have visited Sengen Shrine in Fujinomiya several times. The last time was in May for the Yabusame Festival. The shrine is walking distance from the Fujinomiya train station and a great place to visit.
This typical Japanese festival covered the city streets as well as the Shrine grounds. Large decorated wooden carts carrying musicians were pulled by people wearing traditional festival clothing. It looks a little dangerous. The heavy carts are pulled and pushed, and also prodded with big sticks. Some people hang out on top and others are tied to the sides. Aren't the costumes great?
On the outer shrine grounds were the food and game booths.
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| My favorite festival "food" - fried noodles with seasoning salt |
Inside the shrine area
The best part of this festival (in my opinion) are the battles between the carts. Two carts meet, and I don't know if it is by chance or pre-arranged, and they slowly get closer and closer until they are inches apart.
The drums and the music get louder and the participants get very intense and stare at each other up close.
Eventually one cart backs up, then representatives of the two cart teams face off and drink a little cup of sake. I don't know who is the winner.
10 comments:
Interesting festival Pamela. The carts are beautifully decorated and traditional clothing is wonderful. Great standoff at the end, kind of like a challenge isnt it 😊
Hi Pamela wow what a wonderful festival i love the costumes,love the pic of the kiddies,looks like a lot of fun.
Pamela: Thank-you for sharing this interesting event with us.
The noodles look yummy.
Catherine
Every festival in Japan is special, and many are dangerous with fire, water, battle or just staring contest!
You are right, the costumes, and the floats, are fantastic.
This festival is just so cool!! I love the costumes, especially the children. You must have had a great time!
Merry Christmas
xx, Carol
A fascinating cultural event!
Lots of interesting pictures, thanks for sharing :-)
I can see lots of blue fabrics, which one associates with Japan, so it is nice to see how much they are actually worn.
xx
Very interesting and such vibrant colours in the clothing.
What a terrific post, Pamela. The festival looked beautiful -- loved the floats and seeing all the people in native dress, especially those adorable children. It looks like a most memorable experience.
I love your festival posts - all those carts and costumes look amazing, I bet everybody was having a lot of fun!
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