Matsuri !

The matsuri (festival) for the local shrine was held over 2 days last weekend. This is Rika, Danyl and Sonoko outside the shrine.

An important ritual in the festival is for people from each of the 'chome' (wards) related to the shrine to carry a 'mikoshi' (portable shrine) around their neighbourhood to bless it. Each ward has their own shrine, which houses their neighbourhood god. There are apparently 8 million shinto gods in Japan so there are enough to go round.

This is a close-up of the Yoyogi 5-chome (5th ward) mikoshi. It is constructed like a house or temple for the god to live in. On the top of the roof is a golden phoenix (which is also an aerial for the god's TV).

The Mikoshi is mounted on poles so it can be carried around the neighbourhood. This is done by team of local boys, with help from the dads. Here they are getting organised. The boy in the yellow shirt is Hiromi (or Hiroshi) who lives 2 floors above us in our apartment block.

The bambo slats behind record the names of the people and companies who have contributed to the festival. The writing on the happi coats says 'festival' on the back and 'Yoyogi 5th ward' or 'Yoyogi Hachiman shrine' on the front.

The boys shout 'washoi' as they carry the shrine. The Mikoshi is accompanied by a Taiko (drum). This is the neighbourhood Taiko, which has been in use since 1953.

The drum is on a cart which is pulled through the street by ropes.

Here is the procession moving north towards Shinjuku with the Park Hayatt tower in the background.

Still heading north, this time with the South Shinjuku's Times Square tower in the background. We went up to the supermarket at the north border to the ward then circled back.

The mikoshi is quite heavy so they had several stops for rest and refreshment.

This video shows the procession near where we live.

The main festival was held in the grounds of the Yoyogi Hachiman shrine throughout the weekend. This is Rika and Sonoko in front of the shrine.

Yoyogi Hachiman is a shinto shrine dedicated to the god 'Hachiman' (literally 'eight banners'). Hachiman is one of the most popular shinto deities being the shinto god or war and the protector of Japan. Hachiman is also the god of agriculture, so its festivals are held each autumn to celebrate the conclusion of the harvest. Rika tells me that Hachiman originally came form Korea and so the gates of all Hachiman schrines face west towards Korea.

Shinto shrines often have a stage, for the purposes of entertaining the gods. The gods clearly have very specialised taste in music.

The grounds of trhe shrine were filled with' yatai' (stalls) with food or entertainments.

Matsuri are a good opportunity for girls to enjoy dressing up in yukata (summer kimono).

There were lots of entertainments for children. Like fishing for goldfish, or shooting for prizes.

Soft toys.


More fishing for goldfish and toys.

Or raffles where you can win an air-gun.

It was all very relaxed, orderly and well organised. Boy scouts were on duty to clean up the rubbish. I am sure Sir Robert Baden-Powell would have been surprised and proud to see this.

And of course plenty of bogans to chat-up the groups of schoolgirls.

Japanese schoolgirls often wear uniforms called 'sara-fuku' which are modelled on 18th century sailors uniforms. So I wonder what Japanese sailors wear - do they have to dress like schoolgirls? (perhaps just in their free-time).

This is a stall for iced drinks. There were also plenty of places where you could sit down and enjoy some nice food.

This yatai is selling Yaki-tori (char-grilled chirken on skewers). Other options were oden (fish cakes in broth), takoyaki (octapus pieces in batter) and okonomiyaki (fried pankakes of meat and vegetables with egg and batter). This is yakisoba (fried noodles).

This is the mikoshi for the main Yoyogi Hachiman god.

During the evening there was a steady que of people lining up to pray at the shrine, and presumably say thank-you for the successful harvest.