One of the things I did over the Golden Week holiday was take the train to Hamamatsu to attend the Kite Festival. I went once before to this festival before the pandemic.
The history of this festival goes back to the Eiroku era (1558 - 1569) when the ruling lord of Hikuma Castle (now Hamamatsu Castle) flew a large kite in honor of the birth of his first son. There are records of kite flying in Hamamatsu dating back to the late 1700's. This practice grew even more popular during the Meiji era (1868 - 1912). The Nakatajima Sand Dunes, which is one of two venues for this festival, face the Enshu Sea, which is favorable for kite flying due to the strong winds.
The current festival was established in 1950. This area has a long tradition of hatsudako (first kite) to celebrate the birth of one's firstborn child. This is one of the few Japanese festivals that isn't tied to a shrine or temple. It is a festival for and by the people of the town.
Japan is a very clean, tidy country. As festival go-ers enter the festival area, they are offered tongs and plastic bags to pick up any trash they see. Isn't that a great way to keep things clean for everyone?
The kite flying area is a huge field surrounded by tents for vendors and others for the kite teams. The kites are very large and take many people to get them up in the air and to keep them there. In addition, each kite team has a team of musicans of all ages to act as a little parade for the kite.
To get a better view, you can climb up the big hill and look out.
The second venue of the festival is around the train station. In the evening there is a parade of these big carved wood carts. I did not stay for the evening session, but I did look at the carts on display. There were volunteers who would put the Japanese festival jacket on visitors and take pictures.
The festival is held May 3, 4, and 5th every year.
This is the last of my Golden Week Adventure posts. I took about a million photos that day, so it has taken me awhile to go through them. My friends and I got on the train at different stations, but met up in the last train car to go to Hamamatsu for the festival. The three day festival attracts approximately two million people over three days. The festival originated over 440 years ago when the then Lord of Hijuma Castle, who ruled Hamamtsu and the surrounding area, raised a kite in celebration of the birth of his first son. In this region of Japan, there is still the tradition of raising a kite with the name of one's child to celebrate the birth.
From the Hamamatsu train station, we took a bus to the area near the Nakatajima Sand Dunes where the kites were flown. It was very crowded and the kites were quite large. It was exciting to see all that was happening. In addition to the kites to celebrate the birth of children, there are many kites representing different neighborhood groups. These group kites battle each other in the sky, entangling the 5 mm thick hemp kite lines in an attempt to cut through the other kite's lines using friction. Each group has matching jackets and a bugle and drum band to give signals and cause excitement.
After eating lunch and watching the kites, we headed back to the festival area near the train station. There were so many things going on!
Dancing
Music performances
Street performers
There were many of these gotenyatai (palace-like floats), which were in the night parade. Volunteers encouraged us to take our photo wearing the traditional jackets.
It was a fun day and I hope to attend this festival again next year!
