Sansha Taisai started in 1721 when a sacred procession of portable shrines took place at a the site of a permanent shrine. Over the years, townspeople joined the procession adding floats, decorative dolls, tiger dances and other things that now make up this large festival. Two more shrines became part of the procession in 1884 and 1887 and the festival became Sansha Taisai or Festival of Three Shines.
Now it is the largest festival in the Hachinohe area and takes place each year from July 31 - August 4 to pray and express gratitude for good health and rich harvest.
The weather was looking great and there was ZERO chance of rain based on the weather site I looked at...which turned out to be very inaccurate! I hadn't been at the festival location long when ominous looking clouds rolled in. I found shelter under a huge tree and it started pouring. The festival started out in a drenching rain, the participants mostly looked miserable. After a few minutes the rain stopped and the sun came out. I wandered down the street to get a better vantage point. I didn't bring an umbrella so when it started downpouring again I tucked away my camera and accepted that I was going to get soaked, no big deal. I was forced to stay dry by a very nice lady nearby though...she wouldn't take no or daijoubu for an answer when she insisted on sharing her umbrella with me.
There are 27 large, extremely ornate mechanical floats each year. The floats are made by neighborhood associations of Hachinohe City. Along with the floats, the procession includes portable shrines, tiger dances, lion dances, and other things I don't know the name for...
The floats are described as being like pop-up books, they start out looking like boxes, but then expand outward and upward. Some even blow smoke. Each float has so many decorations it's pretty much impossible to take in every detail. The tiger and lion dances were really entertaining and they came by and put their mouths over the heads of children, I was told this was to breathe good luck onto them. There were 2 different types of lion dances, they looked like dragons to me, but what do I know?
This festival takes place near Hachinohe City Office building. The nearest train station is Honhachinohe Station, about a 5 minute walk. Since I was going alone I took the train because it was faster and I wasn't sure about parking. Misawa Station to Hachinohe Station (switch trains) to Honhachinohe Station. Easy peasy.
GPS coordinates: 40.512228, 141.488358
Video montage of the festival procession (floats, tiger/lion dances) can be viewed by clicking the image below or by clicking the link here: http://youtu.be/R-h73V-DS0o
 |
| I think I was the only person not prepared for rain... |
 |
| First kind of lion dancer, as you can see below, not all kids liked having their heads inside a lion's mouth. |
The next four pictures show the second type of lion dance and the tiger dance.
 |
| Fountain that made me giggle. |
 |
| Did I mention the floats are huge?? |
Up next: 5 Festivals in 8 Days - #2 Morioka Sansa Odori
No comments:
Post a Comment