Gobo Matsuri

October is a huge month in Japan for the matsuri, or festival, due to the fact that it is harvest time. Nearly every town across the land has their own festival and then there are the additional festivals which celebrate some more specific event or thing. Matsuri's on the calendar in Wakayama for October include the Ahi and Saba (tuna and mackeral) Matsuri, the Laughing Festival and the Crying Baby Sumo Matsuri, among others. This past week was the Gobo Matsuri, celebrating the town and I reckon revolving around the local shrine or temple. It is hard to get a clear answer concerning the actual point and purpose, in the origin sense, of these festivities, for most natives only have a vague idea. Much like holidays in the States, over time the purpose of celebration has been lost or ignored, though the eagerness to gather and perform traditions and drink and be merry has not. Whether this is good or bad can be argued either way, but I think few to none can object to the gathering of people in the street for dancing, chanting, eating and music. In addition, and not to be downplayed, for it comprises the content of the matsuri, is the tradition. The tradition of dressing up in traditional garb, playing the drums, carry large portable shrines and chanting. For the first time at the Gobo Matsuri, I witnessed the debauchery and costume of the local Matsuri. It took place both Tuesday and Wednesday, but due to a downpour on Wednesday, I only attended on the first day.

The street leading up the Gobo train station was blocked off and filled with people, young and old, some dressed in traditional clothing, most not. There were of course food stands and much drinking. Participants in the majority of festivals in Japan are men. Due to tradition and lack of any desire or push to change this fact, this festival was no different. The bulk of the festival's excitement lies in watching large numbers of drunk and staggering men, carry large portable shrines on their shoulders for hours. The largest of these shrines is called the Yotsu Daiko and is large enough to carry four young boys, in full regalia, faces painted, who drum a large taiko drum which sits in the center of them. The boys who are chosen for this duty as I understand rotates every year. The men carrying the shrines are men of the town. I am not sure if there is any further criteria to this position, but it seems that the elders, still fit to carry the shrine to some extent, do the least of the grunt work and have earned the right to join in and take breaks as they please. It is a great honor to carry the shrines and some of the people that I talked to at this and another similar festival had been carrying the Yotsu Daiko for years.

These shrines are carried for hours, swaying side to side, making it down the street in one way or another, but definitely in their own time. On the second day of the festival, the carrying and chanting (did I mention there is chanting as the shrines are carried? The meaning is unknown to most, since it is traditional chanting of an ancient type) drinking and stumbling and drumming all day long. The eventual ending point of the procession, is the local shrine. It was an exciting couple of dry hours that I watched the event, being in my "home" town made it that much better, for the surprised look on people's faces at the sigh of a non-Japanese is that much less, and I managed to run into a few local friends as well. Until the next Matsuri...