山祭り

It's festival season and I couldn't be happier about it! I have been waiting for the festivals to start again since last August. Summertime is when the countryside of Japan gets really busy with various festivals held in different towns almost every weekend, but even in Spring there are a few festivals held, such as this one that I am going to tell you about.

This past weekend one of the villages in my town had their Yama Festival. A yama is a two-story wagon that the yama teams spend a month building by hand. Also yama means mountain in Japanese. During the festival crowds of people come out to pull the wagons up and down the streets of town with much yelling and singing, the whole time the yamas are crowded full of children along for the ride. There are two yama teams for this village, and membership is based on the district you live in. Festivals have such a fun atmosphere because everyone works together as team to pull their yama around. I wonder sometimes why they do this. Why get drunk, forego sleep, and pull a monstrously huge and heavy structure around town for two days? But it's for the joy of community spirit, and also traditionally it has religious reasons. I even asked my friend if there is a meaning behind the festival, and she who grew up here was not even sure of a specific meaning!

At 3 p.m. I headed into town, my excitement for the festival building each moment. I met up with my friend and we headed out to see the progress of the yamas, then on their first run of the festival. After stepping outside of the house, we merely had to listen for the sounds of yelling, singing, and beating drums and follow them to the yamas parading down the streets. We spent the evening walking around with the yama and chatting with people who had come out to participate or watch the festival. Small town festivals are so much fun, because everyone knows each other and everyone turns out for the event. 

At 9 p.m. the yamas were stopped so everyone could take a break. I returned home with my friend's family to eat dinner and sleep for a couple of hours before asa yama (morning yama) began at 2:00 a.m. The teams gathered again and departed towing their yamas down the streets. My friend and I joined at 3:00 a.m. after waking up to the sounds of their drumming and yelling- two or three streets away from the house! This time my friend gave me a team hapi coat to wear and I joined in- yelling and tugging on the huge rope to help pull the yama along for the next four hours!

At the halfway point of that run, both teams stopped their yama and circled up for some nourishment. One team had prepared huge pots of miso soup for everyone to eat. Eating the hot soup was a great break since it is still quite cold here at night. After a 30 minute break, we picked up the ropes again and heaved on down the road. Even though it was around 3 degrees Celsius and well before dawn everyone was full of energy and excitement- laughing, joking, and passing around beers and sake!

4 a.m. break, eating soup and standing around a fire to keep warm, next to the wharf and fish market.

Turning onto the main street of town, just after sunrise.

They stopped for a ten minute break, right on main street! When it's festival time- the yamas have right of way!

Every year the decorations on the yamas change, but they always depict a scene from an old Japanese tale or historical event.

At 7:00 a.m. the yamas finished that run and came to their next stopping point. This time, the other team had food prepared- steaming hot bowls of udon noodles ready as soon as the yamas arrived. Everyone filed into the tent to get a bowl of food and after eating and chatting for a bit, most people went home to recover before the last segment of the festival began later on Sunday afternoon. 

I returned to my friend's house with the intent to sleep, but her four year old daughter had just woken up from a solid night of sleep and was ready for the day. I tried to convince her that it was night time- but she said no and yanked open the curtains to exclaim "It's morning, it's playtime now!" So we cleaned up, ate breakfast, lounged around, and played with the kids for a couple hours before walking back to the place the yamas were stopped. We were early so I took the chance to climb the yamas and beat on the taiko drum nestled inside. 

Soon the crowds started to gather again so departure preparations could be made. Promptly at 2 the singing, and drumming started and off we went for the final segment of yama matsuri. I helped pull the yama as we started off, but then broke off after about 30 minutes so I could prepare for my taiko performance. I met up with my taiko team and we waited for the yamas to arrive outside of the city hall where we would play. As soon as the yamas arrived we set up our taiko drums, hundreds of people gathering around to watch.

Performing taiko for the hundreds of festival-goers, the huge yama stopped behind us

After we finished playing, the yama teams rested for about 15 minutes before taking off again. Finally free from my pre-performance nerves, I downed a corn dog and a crepe from the festival vendors and then ran off to rejoin the festival! I continued to help them pull the yamas the rest of the day until about 9:30, an hour before they reached the end of their routes and the festival ended. 

Departure for the final yama run.

My friend's husband- tuckered out from no sleep!

Over the weekend I spent time with both teams. Team Hakusan had several people I know on it, from work and Judo. I had only a few acquaintances on the other team, but it had more people and were much rowdier than team Hakusan. Every time my friend and I walked over to the second team we had a blast with people coming up to talk to us and make jokes. The two teams were even good-naturedly squabbling this weekend over who I would pull with! For Asa yama, I had joined the Hakusan team (with all the people I know) and wore a team hapi coat the whole night. So before the 2 p.m. Sunday departure, the men from the second team (who I had met the previous day) demanded to know why I joined team Hakusan instead of theirs! They told me I may have "friends" on the other team, but their team would be family! During the last run on Sunday when Nahoko and I joined the second team again, one of the men said that they had been later informed by somebody that I was only allowed to pull with Hakusan! It was so hilarious!

I'm so happy I was able to spend time celebrating the festival with my friends as well as meet so many new people from my town. It was a great weekend and a great way to start off the festival season for the year!