Sunday, July 12, 2009

During the Festival

I'm back with more photos from festival yesterday :). Mikoshi is a portable shrine people bear on the shoulders by means of two or four poles. During the matsuri, people bring it around the shrine's neighborhood.
Following the mikoshi are several priests from the shrine who stop by at houses to give blessings.

He followed a pick-up car while playing some traditional Japanese songs whose melodies somehow made me felt sad.
This is Shishimai the lion. He entertained people as well as scared off children. I saw at least three kids cried because of him.
And what surprised me more was this dance club from university who did the same performance at Yukata festival, a modern dance and music, except that yesterday they wore traditional costume. With long and exhausting rehearsal, they deserve to show the dance more than once, don't they?

I hope you enjoy this festival as well.

7 comments:

Babzy.B said...

beautiful shots Henny !

Kaori said...

Henny, that mikoshi is BEAUTIFUL! So shiny. I like the shishimai too. I think I cried when I was little too :)

Rajesh said...

Beautiful shots.

joo said...

Suprb post Henny. I love your photos and stories. This festival seems to be interesting event:)
My favourite is the second photo - lovely!
have a great week!

Kcalpesh said...

Very bright and colourful photos... good work & thanks for sharing

VP said...

Love these pics, my favorite is obviously Shishimai: I'd like to wear that mask and scare some kids. Not too much, just a bit...

henny said...

@ Babzy, thank you, I felt like I journalist, following them ;).
@ Kaori, the mikoshi, it's a must in every festival, right? Yes, even little boy cried.
@ Rajesh and Kcalpesh, tahnks so much and welcome to Saijo. Hope you enjoy the town.
@ Joo, care to come? August is festival season :)
@ VP, do you really want to wear it?