Why Can't He Find a Decent Pair of Pants?!
~Last weekend, David the Party Animal went to yet another crazy festival in Japan. In this case, it was the annual Niigata Festival in the city of the same name. It had many of the same features as the Nagaoka festival: a portable shrine parade, taiko drums, the whole nine yards. After a half-hour trip by bullet train, I devoted all my energy to enjoying myself, but managed to spare a few seconds to take pictures for you.
^ Leading the parade were some lovely ladies dressed up as 'Fukomachi Geisha' (or something along those lines), as the parade leader informed me. They moved slowly in a zig-zag pattern, repeatedly pounding the butts of their staves against the ground. Here's a video:
^ How photogenic! The staves they're carrying are called khakkhara, which loosely translates to 'Pilgrim's Staff'. They have four loose metal rings at the top that jingle when the staff is pounded. The symbolism here is to warn animals/insects/morons to get out of the way lest they be squashed. Another interpretation is that the sound of the four rings reminds listeners of the "Four Noble Truths" in Buddhist philosophy.
^ There were about a dozen shrines in the Niigata parade. At first, I thought that they were the same shrines that were used in Nagaoka because the designs were so similar. I later discovered that the symbolism of the phoenix (and so forth) is particular to the Niigata region which includes Nagaoka, and the other design elements are similar across Japan.
^ The portable shrines were amazingly-detailed, even more so than the ones in Nagaoka. I like the oni (demon in English, kanji = 鬼 ) image on this shrine, although it kind of freaks me out. On a side note, if you're playing 'tag' in Japan, the person doing the tagging is not referred to as 'it', but is instead the 'oni'. I also find it amusing that the kanji for demon, 鬼, is on the official Joyo kanji list that all the children learn.
^ On the other sides of the shrine were images of ryu (Chinese dragons). I like how one has red eyes and the other has green eyes. Red-eyes seems scared, doesn't he? Perhaps he's afraid of hungry green-eyes.
^ A more colorful shrine, also with a dragon image. On the right, you can also see a samurai face.
^ The most beautiful shrine, in my humble opinion, had woodcut artwork with gold leaf that seemed to glow in the light.
^ This little festival participant seems to be enjoying himself. If you ask me, I think he climbed up there so as to locate his pants, which he seems to have lost. Why can't he just find a decent pair of pants?!Speaking of pants (that's yet another interesting way to start a conversation), my students have a difficult time understanding that words like 'pants' and 'glasses' are technically plural, even though they are single objects. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that in Japanese, there are no plurals; I'm not quite sure how multiple objects are distinguished from single ones in any given sentence.
^ Like the portable shrine parade in Nagaoka, each shrine-carrying team had a support group with beer and water. Unlike the Nagaoka support groups, the Niigata support wasn't quite as organized or efficient. As long as the beer gets to the right place, I guess it doesn't matter. Also, it looks like the man in the red shirt has also lost his pants. Is there a master-pants-thief running around?Also unlike the Nagaoka parade (which went in circles around the main street), the Niigata parade had a destination in mind: Hakusan Park, which I visited a few months ago. Once the parade arrived, the real fun began, with music and demonstrations.
^ I didn't get to see this float in action, but it still looks impressive. I want a real car that looks like this. I'd drive down the highway, crushing smaller cars under my keel, and drive into the water where my amphibious vehicle would cruise around.There were also some impressive taiko drumming troupes, which were accompanied by flutes. Here's a video: