4 Japanese Festivals

Japan is a very special country. It's a place that embraces modernity while holding fast to their cultural traditions. If you're lucky enough to visit Japan during a festival, go!  They offer a peek into Japan's cultural soul. During my four trips to Japan, I've experienced Hatsumode in Kyoto, Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka and Hiwatari Matsuri at Mt. Takao. 

Hatsumode (初詣) 

Hatsumode means "first shrine visit". This is one of the most important traditions of the year. Many people visit their local shinto shrine (or less commonly, a Buddhist Temple) with family or friends during sanganichi  (January 1-3). Many of the most famous shrines - Meiji, Yasaka, and Fushimi Inari -  are packed with people during this period as most Japanese are on holidays from Dec 29 - Jan 3.

In order to enter the shrine symbolically clean, visitors wash their hands at the shrine's ablution fountain, known as a chozuya (手水舎). There's a protocol to be observed here, but don't be concerned about making a mistake. The Japanese are far too polite to point out any blunder. Take the wooden ladle with your right hand and use it to scoop water from the basin. Pour this water over your left hand. Repeat the procedure in reverse to rinse your right hand. Hold the ladle with your right hand again and pour the water into your left hand to rinse the mouth. Still holding the ladle in the right hand, scoop water to rinse the left hand again, leaving some water in the ladle. Finally, rinse the ladle by tipping it up so that the remaining water pours down over the handle. 

Now cleansed, visitors wait in line to approach the alter, ring a bell and offer prayers to the kami. Wake up the sleeping kami by take the rope and ringing the bell. Toss a coin into the saisenbako (a slatted, wooden collection box). Bow twice. Clap your hands twice. Offer your prayers. Bow once to the shrine, and make way for the next visitor. 

There’s always a lot to do at a Shinto shrine. Omukuji  (おみくじ)  are paper fortune telling slips that reveal what’s in store for the year ahead. Deposit ¥100 into the coin box and reveal your future. Fortunes sit along a scale from a great blessing (大吉) to a great curse (大凶). Will you find love? Pass your examinations? If it’s an unlucky fortune that you wish to leave behind, tie it to a designated tree or string. If it's auspicious, carry it away with you. 

Another popular hatsumode tradition involves buying an omamori charm (御守). Omamori are purchased at the start of a new year for a variety of reasons. One type protects from traffic accidents, another is thought to bring profits your way, or serve as general protection for the year ahead. Old omamori, bought the year before, are returned to the shrine to be burned.

You'll see many visitors offering up prayers for the new year through by writing or drawing on wooden votive tablets known as ema (絵馬). 

A lovely surprise for my friend and I were the communal barrels of sake at many shrines during sanganichi. Some even offered a complimentary cup of amazake (甘酒), hot sake with grated ginger. Oishii! Toast to the new year - kanpai! (（かんぱい）

Hiwatari Matsuri (火渡り祭)

The fire walking festival at the foot of Mount Takao is a spectacular display of piety. Monks of the Shugendo sect walk barefoot across the embers of a huge fir tree pyre, enduring the pain to free themselves from the influence of evil spirits and to pray for peace in the world. It’s held every year on the second Sunday of March in a parking lot just a short walk from Takaosanguchi Station. 

When I attended in 2017, the main festivities kicked off just before 13:00. Check up-to-date local listings in case of changes and to avoid disappointment. You can reach the festival site using JR Lines to Takao Station or Keio Lines to Takaosanguchi Station. The two stations are a 25 minute walk from one another. I chose to arrive at Takao Station (JR) in the centre of the small town in order to explore a bit before the festival. I returned to Tokyo later via Takaosanguchi Station, which is closer to the festival site. 

Find your way to Takaosan Yakuoin Temple. From here, monks dressed in white robes will proceed to the pyre, chanting and occasionally blowing into large shell-horns. Arriving at the pyre, the monks carry out a number of rituals representing the warding off of evil spirits: flaying their bodies with fir branches, shooting dull arrows into the air and throwing ceremonial spears. 

Time for the real drama to begin. Monks circle the pyre of stacked wood covered artfully in fir branches, dousing it with some sort of liquid accelerant, chanting all the while. The large prayer ema surrounding the pyre are moved to the top, and the whole thing is set alight. 

As the flames start to die down, monks with rakes begin to spread out the coals for the upcoming act of devotion. Tatami mats are set out and mounds of white salt and alum heaped upon each one. Some flames still visible, the monks rake two paths into the coals.

Both monks and devout civilians began walking quickly across the coals before stepping onto the mats of salt to help treat the resulting blisters. 

Gion Matsuri (祇園祭 )

This festival takes its name from Kyoto's picturesque Gion neighbourhood and is without a doubt one of the most famous festivals in Japan. It takes place in Kyoto each summer between July 14-24. 

Gion Matsuri can be traced back to a ninth century purification ritual performed to appease the kami of floods, earthquakes and fires. When a plague hit Kyoto in 869 AD, sixty-six ceremonial halberds (representing the provinces of Japan) were carried around the city to absorb the disease. They were erected outside the city in the garden of Shinsenen. Mikoshi (portable shrines) were paraded through streets of Kyoto after subsequent outbreaks of plague, blamed upon the god Gozu Tenno.  In 970 AD, the festival became an annual event. Besides a suspension during the Ashikaga Shogunate, the festival has continued to the present day.

July 14, 15, and 16th see the streets of central Kyoto closed to vehicular traffic. Vendors preparing traditional street foods sell their snacks to locals, many of whom take the opportunity to dress in summer yukata. Beautiful displays of paper lanterns light up the streets. 

The parades of yamaboko floats (山鉾巡行) take place on the 17th, "saki-matsuri" (these are the largest floats) and 24th of July, "ato-matsuri" (somewhat more subdued). 

During the festival, a total of thirty-three floats will be hauled through the streets of Kyoto by teams of volunteers. There are two types: yama and hoko. Twenty-three of the larger floats are paraded on July 17 while the remaining ten take part in the more subdued parade on July 24. 

The hoko are gigantic floats up to 24 metres high with terraces or interior spaces filled by musicians. Each hoko can weigh upwards of ten tons and requires a team of several dozen members to pull them through the streets by long, thick ropes. Six of the ten hoko are topped with an ornamental shingi pole. The twenty-three yama are somewhat smaller. Rather than a shingi pole, they are topped with a pine tree. Incredibly, these floats are rebuilt from scratch each year. 

Mikoshi-arai: Each of the two evenings of the yamaboko parades, portable shrines called mikoshi are taken to and from the Yasaka Shrine. These rituals begin at 5:00 pm. The mikoshi are beautiful, but the most impressive aspect of this spectacle are the rotating teams of yocho (shrine bearers). When you consider that of these shrines can weigh as much as 2.5 tons, you can understand why such large teams are needed to complete their circuits. 

Tenjin Matsuri (天神祭)

Much like the city of Osaka itself, the Tenjin festival is lively, upbeat and quirky. The festival takes place over two days with the major action - a land procession, a river procession, and fireworks - happening on July 25th. 

Tenjin is the festival of Osaka’s Tenmangu Shrine, honouring the god of learning, Sugawara no Michizane. 

Midafternoon on July 25, drummers lead the land procession from Tenmangu Shrine through the streets of Osaka. Costumed characters include dancers carrying red and white umbrellas, lion dancers, musicians, and a horse-riding goblin. Teams of yocho carrying the three gilded mikoshi shrines are preceded by Michizane's messengers: a boy and girl leading a sacred ox. 

Around 18:00, the mikoshi are loaded onto boats that will paddle up and down the Okawa river. Performance boats skirt the shores as well, treating onlookers to performances of traditional Japanese noh. As the sun starts to go down, bonfires are set alight on river barges under tow.

Meanwhile, dozens of vendors have setup food stalls in the parks along the river's edge. My Airbnb host, Makoto, related that for her and her friends, Tenjin Matsuri is really "all about the food".

At 19:30, the fireworks display begins. Prime spots like the brides over the Okawa fill up quickly. Speaking of crowds, it's possible to purchase a reserved seat along the river bank. Groups who really want to put themselves in the centre of the action rent space aboard boats that pass through the bonfire and performance barges.