On Monday, I went to a festival called Akiba Matsuri in Niyodogawa-cho, the very small town where my friend Julie lives. I don't know a whole lot about the meaning of the festival, but basically what happens is that a group of men makes their way up a mountain road, carrying a mobile shrine to the top of the mountain, where there is a larger shrine. Along the way, other men take turns throwing and catching an extremely long pole topped with a massive feathery thing. I would guess the pole was about 20 feet long, though I'm pretty bad with estimates. But I wouldn't have been surprised if it were about four times taller than I am. At the top of the mountain, the men put the mobile shrine (sort of a palanquin?) inside the larger, permanent shrine (an actual building of sorts), and there's more pole throwing, followed by little boys dancing with bamboo sticks and katanas (swords).
The festival started around 8 a.m., but the group of girls I went with decided to go around 1 p.m. since the group was supposed to reach the top of the mountain around 3:00. I was quite happy with our decision in the end, because it would've been very cold up on the mountain in the morning. But by the afternoon it was a fairly nice temperature. I also would not have wanted to spend all day in the crowd that was at the festival. There were a ton of people; a teacher at school told me that it is one of the 3 main festivals in Kochi. When it was time to watch the pole throwing up at the top of the mountain, the crowd was so packed in that my hands were pretty much trapped at my sides the whole time we were watching.
The whole festival was quite interesting, but one of the most entertaining bits actually wasn't part of the festival at all. While we were standing on a road above the procession, watching them approach, a police officer started talking to us. He asked Julie if we'd been to the festival before, and how long we'd been in Japan. Then he asked her if we had tried the grilled mochi yet (mochi is a glutinous rice dough). Julie told him that we hadn't yet, and he said, "But they'll run out!" and went to go buy them for us. He actually went and bought us rice cakes with his own money, then brought them back to us. Not exactly what you expect from the police, but I suppose things are different in the really tiny towns, and on festival days. I think that was possibly the highlight of the festival for me.
I think the festival was especially fun for Julie since a lot of the participants were her students. Some of her elementary students were dancing in the procession, and some of her junior high students were playing the music or selling good luck charms at the shrine. I thought the little boys dancing were especially cute, though it was mildly alarming to watch them dance with sharpened swords. The katana they used were small enough for children, but still sharp enough to cut bamboo, which was part of the dance. But the boys were being quite careful, and were also heavily supervised, so everything went fine. I got the impression they had done plenty of practicing as well.
So, now that you've got some background, here are the pictures that Lindsay and I took!
And now for some video! These were taken on Lindsay's camera. It should give you an idea of what the pole throwing and catching looked like, plus commentary from Julie and Linsday. The music is quite clear as it was being performed directly behind us.
Oh my goodness I heard your voice! That was so exciting! I do not think I would want my boys dancing with swords that could cut bamboo. However, the ones in the pictures were very cute. I can not believe the stick throwing. How cool! Thank you so much for sharing Andrea! I love learning new things about other cultures. I think the reason the Officer bought you treats was because you were all so cute! We all love you and miss you tons! Christina and the Gang
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