A Tale of 3 Matsuri
Emily in Tokyo and more. Trigger Warning: End ties in with American news
Matsuri = festival. They’re regional. Each has a unique history with similar and different purposes such as harvesting, celebrating a shrine’s deity, or celebrating an annual, local event. If you’re part of the taiko world, you probably know more about this than me. You may even have a low key obsession since taiko is such an integral component ranging from background music to being part of the main event. If your knowledge of Japanese traditional culture is minimal, maybe this is your first time reading about it, but let me explain why this should be on your bucket list.
Check out this handy link to find your next matsuri.
1. Furusato Matsuri
I met with Ty Yamamoto, who was visiting from Chicago, and attended Furusato Matsuri (hometown festival), which is a culmination of festivals from different prefectures. This takes place for 10 days at Tokyo Dome (home to the Tokyo Giant baseball team) and you can sample food and drink from the visiting areas and watch demonstrations. It's a massive event with over 300 participating companies and 300,000-400,000 visitors.
Although there's an entrance fee, Furusato Matsuri is convenient because it can be expensive to travel around the country. There’s a showcase side where you sit in seated bleachers to watch different performances, ranging from people pulling massive washi (paper) floats, to obon demonstrations (circle dancing to honor the spirits of the deceased), to taiko. We saw a Kumamoto dance performance, which is where my mom’s side is from. I sent videos to my family saying “IT’S OUR PEOPLE. THIS COULD’VE BEEN US.” Considering the time difference, I don’t know if they appreciated the 3:00 am text. I don’t think I would’ve experienced this fantastic performance otherwise, and now I’m considering making my way to Kumamoto.
2. Chichibu Yomatsuri
Although I enjoyed the Furusato matsuri, it just can’t compete with actually going to the local region to see it live. In early December, I went to Chichibu Yomatsuri with Tawoo member Eriko.
Chichibu = Just under a 2 hour train ride away in Saitama, suburb outside of Tokyo
Yomatsuri = Festival at night
An UNESCO cultural event, this festival is known for their magnificent yatai (wooden carts) adorned with incredible lanterns and unique art work. Humans are everywhere! There are humans on top of the yatai cheering, hidden inside the yatai playing taiko and fue (bamboo flute), and in front of the yatai in lines pulling it along the street. There were about 280,000 people that attended in just 2 days in 2018. Kaoru Watanabe does a nice explanation about the taiko connection to this important festival, with the emphasis that it’s just one small component of a 3 day celebration that goes on for many blocks.
See Kaoru Watanabe’s Yatai Bayashi video series on KaDON’s website here.
Read more here about the once restricted history of the night festival here. It has traditions dating back to pre-1300s (Kamakura period).
It was crowded and uncomfortable near the end of the parade (closer to the train station), due to the highly anticipated finale where people pull the yatai up a hill, into the square to celebrate. We didn’t have tickets to see the yatai culmination in the main square, so we walked in the opposite direction to the temples and shrines. We were able to walk right next to the yatai, which is an incredible awakening of all your senses. There were also more food and drink options further away from the main attraction, and you see how far the matsuri stretches.
We got to the local shrine and watched a demonstration of yatai bayashi, the festival’s piece where taiko players sit to play since there’s minimal room inside the cart. I was surprised to see how casual the taiko playing was, but I was also surprised by the rhythm. It's not within the count of an even straight beat, not a swing beat, and not directly in between, but this, what I’ll describe as “picked up, but dragged pace” was consistently played across all players, yatai or stage.
3. Fujino/ Makisato Matsuri
But not all festivals reach the same extent, as some countryside ones are much smaller. For example, Tawoo and Gocoo have a special connection with the people in Fujino which is about 2 hours by train from Tokyo and on the way to Mt Fuji. The November festival is held to celebrate autumn and the town’s harvest. In contrast to Chichibu, this is held at the retired Makisato Elementary School gym on a hill (hence the name). They sell homemade kakiage and yakisoba. We eat homegrown, homemade miso, and you can purchase local vegetables such as kabu, daikon, and napa cabbage. There was a minyo trio performance, and Tawoo + Gocoo performed as the closer. The festival had about 300 attendees.
This area is on the border of Kanagawa, close to a river and surrounded by mountains. I’m uncertain if Fujino is considered a “shrinking town,” which is happening in many countryside villages around Japan, but that was my initial impression. I learned that more than 20 years ago, there was a different festival called Hikari matsuri, however most of the people that worked and visited this festival were not from the area. You could say they were hippies that came and left the town annually just for the festival. This saddened Nori san, one of the town’s leaders, and the other locals who grew up there and called this land their home. However they reached a term of exchange with the festival's leaders. Gocoo was one of the performing acts that the locals really enjoyed. They asked the festivals’ organizers to continue to invite Gocoo and in doing so, they will support the festival. Everyone agreed and this continued annually.
The Hikari festival has since stopped, but the Gocoo/ Tawoo connection with the town continues. The locals are incredibly generous and kind. They share their knowledge of how to make miso and harvest their local vegetables, and Gocoo/ Tawoo share their taiko and contagious spirit. However, their sincere friendship doesn’t need an actual taiko drum and sometimes they just karaoke or chat around a bonfire.
Although each matsuri has their own tradition, old and new, they all rely on people to carry the festival spirit. And while writing this, it’s hard not to reflect on how how lucky I am to enjoy these festivals knowing that I’m in a country with one of the world’s strictest gun laws. I think about how the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Chicago has had to re-examine safety around their events, which sadly is not unique, or how I had a moment of panic leaving a BTS concert in Vegas at the same location of the mass shooting in 2017. I've asked my English students if they would like to visit America one day, and some have expressed uncertainty because they don't feel it's safe.
“Japan has also embraced the idea that fewer guns in circulation will result in fewer deaths. Each prefecture — which ranges in size from half a million people to 12 million, in Tokyo — can operate a maximum of three gun shops; new magazines can only be purchased by trading in empty ones; and when gun owners die, their relatives must surrender the deceased member's firearms.” -Business Insider, 11/23/2022
This is complicated and vast. Japan’s culture around rules and regulations are much different than America’s. Being in Japan, the solution seems quite obvious. In the meantime, I worry about my family and friends and reflect on my community’s grievances.
But alas, you're not reading this for American news, right? To end on a lighter note, at the end of Makisato Matsuri, one of the uncles came up to me, opened to a page in his Karaoke book and said: “There’s English on this page. Choose.” I sang the s*** out of Mariah Carey in front of a crowd of Japanese folks, and managed to make someone cry out of sheer laughter.
Also, I hope someone makes a matsuri substack. There’s too much to talk about.
Much love,
Em
P.S., In the future, you can expect to read the start of my non-scientific biomechanical thesis on how I’m trying to change my taiko posture and what I observe in with Kaoly’s movement. Get excited folks, it’s kinematic time!