Iwatsubo Jinja Fall Matsuri 岩壺神社秋祭り

Two weeks ago on Saturday night we went to the Iwatsubo Shrine Fall Matsuri (festival) in Miki, a Shinto festival celebrating the harvest.

Six shrine floats were carried from satellite shrines in Miki to the central Iwatsubo shrine. Each float belongs to a neighborhood, and the local people fund the matintanance of the float, as well as provide the manpower to carry it to Iwatsubo.

The floats were very elaborate and included gilt surfaces, embroidered textiles, drums, lanterns, and power generators.

Each of the floats were carried through the central gate of the shrine and were then paraded around the shrine courtyard. The floats are extremely heavy and at times the movement of the floats through the crowd seemed quite dangerous.

You can get an idea of the weight of the float by looking at the agony on their faces.

We spent much of the evening with one of my co-workers, Nakatani-sensei, his son, and his son's friends. It was great to have someone explain the ritual to us.

After the floats were carried through the gate and paraded around the courtyard the teams took a break to consume sake and food. It was during this break that we were able to get a close-up look at the floats.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Joe and Nakatani-sensei climbing around on one of the floats.

-

A close-up photo of the embroidery.

-

This was the parade leader!

-

Some of the men who carried one of the floats. They wore matching jakets to show which neighborhood they belonged to.

After the main event at the shrine, which included food vendors, lots of drinking, game tents and lots of socializing the teams carried the floats back to their respective neighborhoods, some of which were quite far from Iwatsubo. Quite an impressive feat of strength and quite an amazing show of traditional culture and arts!