It is summer in Japan and everywhere we go it’s teaming of social activities. The photos (and the movies) are from this Sunday. We barely went out of home and we were “recruited” to watch the Kasa Odori – traditional Japanese dance performed with umbrellas. It is typical for eastern Tottori Prefecture (Tottori – ken (鳥取県)) and is typical for the so called Shan-shan festival. It dates back to Edo period.

The dance was performed just in front of BB Plaza Museum of Art. Here are the photos:

At the edge of the umbrellas there are small golden like metal things. That is why every type the dancers move the umbrellas make a very specific sound (you can here it in the movie):

And the rest of the photos:

The real reason for the dance was actually to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Kitaro (鬼太郎), a horror manga hero (there is an exposition dedicated to him and the rest of the Japanese yokai (monsters) in the nearby Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art). Here is the main culprit holding one of the umbrellas:

Well – that’s how it is in Japan during Obon weeks – traditions and manga in one :)

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We knew it is “coming of age day” so we expected to see many girls in kimono on the streets but what we didn’t expect is to end up in the center of coming of age day and Ebisu (the god of fisherman and luck) festival. It was pure luck to decide to go to Hyogo looking for a new trendy area. Instead from the train we spotted something wich was resembling a matsuri (festival) so we decided to explore it.

First I will start with the photos from our camera:

[View with PicLens]

There were many different kind of lucky charms but we bought fukusasa – a bamboo branch with many lucky charms loaded on it (3000 yen by the way). Apparently fukusasa are typical for the Ebisu festival. Our one was plastic though.

Here is the video (I think the ritual is for bringing luck and prosperity):

All the rest of the photos are from our iPhones. They are mainly from the streets surrounding the main shrine  where the matsuri was going on (by the way the name of the area is Nishiyanagiwaracho – just a few hundred meters from Hyogo JR station). On some of them you can see the charms they were selling. As I said there were many different kinds of them and one of our main task in the near future will be to identify them all.

[View with PicLens]

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It was really reach of Shinto traditions experience day. We realized that we got wrong some of the rituals. For example you are supposed to tie your paper fortune (omikuji) to the tree only if you do not like it (we did it anyway last time as we thought this is the right way to do it). A lot still left to learn :)

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