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2012/07/15

Tennosai in Utsunomiya

It's summertime, which is when festivals happen in many places all over Japan.

We went to Tennosai festival (天王祭) last night. Only to the best highlight part at night, though. It was cloudy and extremely humid. We thought it's a matter of time before it would start raining... Because Ms. T was with me (it ALWAYS rains when she's out and about), but hey, it didn't!

Please expect that she will upload video in the near future.


Every year at Tennosai festival, the districts that have their own mikoshi (portable shrine) compete who can climb up the backbreaking 96 steps of Futaarayama shrine with the mikoshi the fastest! The winning time this year was 18 seconds.



These two are the mikoshi photos from Bamba district. It has a big drum on it and two young drummers kept beating while being carried to the top of the shrine. Over 70 guys contributed to the pushing of the biggest mikoshi to the finish line.


Actually, Bamba has another tiny mikoshi (No drum on it) carried by little boys and girls.

5 comments:

  1. Ikedaさん こんにちは! お久ぶりです。
    いよいよお祭りの季節がやってきたようですね。このお祭りにかける皆さんのエネルギーが伝わってきます。近くで見ると凄い迫力でしょうね。私はカメラを構えていてもその迫力に縮み上がりそうです。

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  2. by the looks on several faces there was some grunting going on! excellent actions shots. 18 seconds seems a miracle. happy week to you Yoshi.

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  3. What a special festival. I've never seen nor heard of such. There is certainly a great vibe. You're putting out beautiful images. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Excellent images....Nice to see this special festival...

    -Trevor

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  5. Yours captures are great, really aa pleasure for ees. best regard from Belgium

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