Autumn Festival at Fujinomiya Sengen Shrine

This festival is held November 3, 4, and 5 at Sengen Taisha Shrine in Fujinomiya every year. I have attended several times before and it is always fabulous. There are 20 heavy carved wooden carts that are pushed and pulled along the streets around the Shrine area. Each cart has a team of people of all ages, wearing colorful Japanese costumes. The riders on the carts are musicians playing drums, flutes, and bells.

The festival goes on into the night, so the lanterns are needed.

The wood poles are used as brakes and for turning. They get chewed up pretty fast, so each cart needs many poles  

The streets are narrow and the wooden carts heavy, so the drivers and team members have to be very careful.

Mt. Fuji watches over the festival.

This piece of wood on wheels gets slid under the cart to make the cart turn. 

Even the littlest team members help with the cart pulling.

The wooden carvings are gorgeous.

As evening arrived, big statue things popped up on top of the carts.

As it got dark, the group members of each cart did dances together.

The shrine grounds were full of vendor tents, selling food and drink, as well as children's games and crafts.

After the dances, there are competitions between two carts, moving closer, then away, with the musicians playing.

These men on the side are the judges, with the head judge on the little step.

The carts get so close, a paper couldn’t fit between them.

They back apart, then do it again.

They back apart again, then one cart/team is declared the winner, and they drink some tiny square wooden cups of sake.

The drink is followed by a traditional clap (it is like three triple claps, then a single clap).

Everyone shakes hands and moves on.

The moon was full, but the sky was cloudy.

It was getting late, so I headed for the train station.  I couldn’t help noticing what a good time everyone was having.