Posts Tagged ‘matsuri’

Goldfish catching champions

The traditional festival game of catching goldfish with a tissue paper net was taken to extremes on a recent episode of TV Tokyo’s “Champions.” Here’s a clip of one of their champions catching over 30 fish in three minutes:

Later in the same episode, the champions who passed the speed catching round moved on to face off against each other in a new goldfish catching game. Many parents and children don’t play the goldfish catching games at festivals because it is difficult to care for the fish they catch. To encourage people to keep goldfish as pets, TV Tokyo sought the help of the Sega game designer behind the popular MushiKing collectable card game. He designed a game in which players would compete to quickly catch an entire tankload of goldfish. Each player could bring larger goldfish they had raised at home to the battle, one of which could be added to their opponent’s tank each round. If this game catches on, children may gain a special commitment to raising the goldfish they catch at festivals.

Here’s a clip of the final showdown between the two greatest goldfish catching champions:

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In case you are wondering: yes, PETA would consider this game to be cruel. They believe that keeping fish inside tanks is bad, and recommend that fish lovers download “realistic fish computer screensavers” instead of imprisoning intelligent fish that can “speak, make tools, and think.”

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Volunteer Grown Opium Poppies

In Ibaraki Prefecture, Shimotsuma City‘s Opium Flower Festival has hit a snag. They have had to burn a whole field of papaver setigerum poppies that they grew. Why? They’re illegal. You know. The police frown on that kind of thing.

A Japanese city has been forced to destroy thousands of flowers grown for a local festival after a police officer noticed they were illegal opium poppies, an official said Wednesday.

Whoops! Those wily volunteering gardeners strike again. Luckily, they were not needed during the extermination process. The poppies were grown by volunteers, but eradicated by nearly 100 officials. Wow.

The flowers were grown by volunteers using seeds imported from abroad, she said, adding that the city was checking how the seeds had got into the country.

The Shimotsuma flower festival draws 2,000-3,000 visitors every year, according to the city.

Copyright AFP 2008 (via Breitbart)

Well, let’s see how many people show up this year, now that they went and scorched the poppies into oblivion. I wonder if they included the poppy squad officials in that estimate. Since it probably bears repeating, let it be known, Japan takes drugs seriously. Beware lemon poppy seed muffins.

Hina Matsuri 2008

Hina matsuri was originally one of five seasonal festivals (sekku) in ancient Japan, called “joshi-no sekku.”
During the Heian period, it was very important for the aristocrats to perform the purification on the day of sekku (“sekku” literally means the turn of the season) to cleanse themselves of bad lucks.
This custom later combined with a paper doll play at court called “hiina-asobi” and was transformed into “hiina-nagashi,” a ritual to float paper dolls on a river to wash away one’s misfortune with the dolls. This became the origin of the Girls’ Festival.
It was since the Edo period that people started to cerebrate the festival exclusively for girls by displaying dolls on a tiered platform.

Akita’s Inukko Festival – Giant Snow Dogs

A news report on the Inukko Matsuri, a 400-year-old festival held in Akita Prefecture:

Inukko Festival (Yuzawa)

Small shrines built of snow enshrine a little dog figure of moshi rice paste. The shrines are flanked by dog figures, also made of snow.
-ANA

Celebrating Setsubun With Pan-kun

Yesterday was Setsubun, a festival celebrating the beginning of spring. As part of the festivities, pan-heated soybeans are thrown for good luck:

Setsubun has been celebrated in many ways, but perhaps the most common custom found throughout Japan is the traditional Mame Maki or the scattering/throwing of beans (mame) to chase away the evil oni (ogres, evil spirits, as depicted in the illustration which heads this article). In some ritual forms, the Toshi Otoko [literally "year man" but referring either to the "man of the house" or to men who are born in the animal sign of the coming year (rat for the year 2008)] will throw mame within the house or at someone perhaps dressed as oni and repeat the saying Oni wa Soto; Fuku wa Uchi (Get out Ogre! Come in Happiness!). After the ritual throwing of the beans, family members may then pick up the number of beans corresponding to their age; eating these brings assurance of good fortune in the coming year. These days, of course, it is not uncommon to see children dressed in masks of oni, others madly throwing beans, and all gleefully shouting for evil to hit the road. Prominent temples in Japan may also find monks or celebrities showering large crowds of people with mame to ward off spirits and welcome the renewal of the coming New Year.

Apparently super chimpanzee Pan-kun was not aware of how the Japanese celebrate Setsubun, so on Saturday night’s Shimura Zoo, Becky stopped by and taught him about the holiday. You can watch this video and follow along with the customs as they are performed [note: having your nose picked by a chimpanzee is not a Setsubun custom]:

And as an added bonus, some footage of a walrus oni having some ice beans thrown at it:

[Post script: If you're looking for some very cheap snacks, Setsubun beans should now be available in the bargain rack at a Japanese supermarket near you!]

Drunken Namahage Molests Women at Akita Prefecture Festival

The Namahage Festival, which is celebrated in the Oga area of Akita Prefecture every New Year’s Eve, usually happens as the JNTO describes it:

On New Year’s Eve, a group of 2 or 3 village youths disguised as a rather grotesque deity called Namahage, wearing large masks, straw raincoats and waist-bands, holding wooden knives and pails, go around visiting the houses at night, dancing along as they give out strange cries. They shout out menacing cries such as: “Any children crying?” “Any children disobeying their parents?” or “Any lazy daughters-in-law neglecting their work?”

However, the latest festival was a bit different, causing scandal and embarrassment for Oga tourism officials:

…one of five men sent to perform at a ryokan inn in the city on New Year’s Eve got drunk, staggered into a public bath and molested several women. Relatives of the assailed women complained to the association about the monstrous behavior displayed by the man in his 20s. The head of the neighborhood association that supplied the performer apologized.

Two neighborhood associations had been supplying performers at the time. They later met with Oga tourism officials to discuss the situation, resulting in the group that had supplied the offender being banned from supplying the city with namahage for three years.

Tourism officials and the Oga Municipal Government said it had also received two complaints from men, with one of them saying a man dressed as namahage groped his wife’s breasts.

No charges will be filed against the bath-invading namahage, since officials believe his apology to be sincere.