Taking a shrine to life in Japan

Summer is a time for festivals in Japan, and every city, town or village will have its own variant or other celebrating everything from cucumbers to cats. The major one is of course the one that celebrates summer itself, and being the new guys in town, the lot of us ALTs were asked to help carry a portable shrine (called an omikoshi) around the city to bring people good luck during the Sukagawa Natsu-matsuri.

If you think it's just a matter of rocking up and walking around the city with the shrine, oh boy. The shrine itself looks smallish and manageable, but it's supported on a set of wide crossbeams so that a lot of people can carry the thing at the same time. And boy do they need a lot of people for the job. A typical omikoshi tips the scales in the region of 1-2 tonnes (I think), depending on the mood of the guys who made the crossbeams. In a small town like mine, a team of about 20-30 people take turns to carry it for about 2-4 hours, but in a big city, the contingent can number up to 100 people and they carry it around for 4-6 hours, possibly in the heat of the afternoon sun.

Still think it's a piece of cake? You really need a lot of coordination and communication to pull something like that off, especially when you have to make frequent stops to shake the shrine in front of shops whose owners have given a donation for the privilege. This is why in the Katamari Damacy game, the sound effect for an omikoshi team was a bunch of people shouting in rhythm. The constant shouts of "sei-ya... so!" actually serve to coordinate the footsteps of the team, because getting your toes stepped on or otherwise kicked while carrying a 2-tonne chunk of wood really isn't very funny. Especially if you've bought cheap matsuri split toed socks and everyone else got the steel tipped versions.

Us ALTs were in the Nakamachi contingent, and got to wear typical Japanese labourers' clothes, which consisted of buttoned up cotton shirt, pants without zips or buttons (!) and an indigo dyed apron. Then we all put on a thick cotton happi coat called a hanten in order to absorb all that sweat that comes about when you wear said shirt, pants and apron.

It rained the first night in Sukagawa, and in apology, the matsuri committee went all out to load us up with beer, presumably to dull the pain of carrying the shrine. I was a little wiser the next day, after waking up feeling like crap and still in pain anyway.

A shrine keeper who let me take his photo. These guys are supposed to be celibate I think. Oooer.

Everybody's got an omikoshi!

Mmm mmm yakisoba stall...

The omikoshi that the bunch of us from Nakamachi were carrying. My photo does the details on the shrine no justice.

The committee were a nice bunch though, and treated us all to dinner and a nice reception with good food (mmm katsuo sashimi) and yet more beer on both days.

And because I'm a masochist at heart, I went to Tokyo the following weekend and did the Shibuya matsuri as well. Pain is your friend!

Here's a video of omikoshi shenanigans I took while on a break from shrining in Shibuya:



I'm a little glad this only happens once a year...