Wow! I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to write a little article about this entry, but there is nothing on the net about it! I’m a little shocked, but I will fill you in.
On October 10th I was asked to take part in the Konpira Festival. Konpira is a shrine (Shinto=Shrine, Buddhist=Temple) located in Kotohira, a town right next to mine.
The cool thing about this festival is that it re-enacts a procession from the Heian Period (794-1185AD) in Japan complete with dress. (Guess who was the star attraction?) You can check me out in my gear below.
Or you can take a look at all the pictures here.
At any rate, basically the deal is on October 10th (October is known as the month when the gods aren’t around… keep reading) we take the God out of the shrine and take him down the mountain to hang out in a Japanese-inn (Ryokan). The next day, we drag him back up the mountain and put him back home.
That’s fine and all.. the problem is that Konpira is famous for having something like 800 steps and is located at the top of the mountain. Also, the God lives in a portable shrine (omikoshi or something) (or whatever… those crazy asians) which literally weighs 1 tonne. Combine that with the fact that we have to take all his stuff as well and it makes for exciting times.
My team was in charge of the big Japanese-drum (Taiko). 
Suffice it to say it was ridiculously heavy.
Enjoy. It was a lot of fun. They don’t know for sure, but rumor is I’m the first foreigner to take part in the event (its been going on for hundreds of years.) neat.
I’m sorry I missed that! I’ll be at Konpira in a couple of weeks. I love the little shops along the steps on the way up. The shrine is beautiful.
(Proposed to my wife there actually)
It`s all fun and games (except for the back-breaking weight of it…) until somebody gets hurt. Which if you follow the `Omikoshi` wikipedia link, does occasionally happen: “At certain festivals, the people who bear the mikoshi wave it wildly from side to side, and from time to time, deaths occur when a mikoshi strikes a bystander or participant.”
Great entries lately!!
Still looking forward to the latest Kiko entry too. 😀 Now… Did you use your own homegrown potatoes for the Potato Party?
Congrats on getting into the Konpira matsuri. I ended up on a team lugging about one of those 1500kg `Omikoshi/Chousa`s around my town, Saita. For the most part, it is kept on a set of wheels, but everytime we run by a shrine/temple/festival site (which was pretty often) 40~50 guys get together to try lifting those seriously heavy `Chousa` (An Omikoshi is closed, and only the Shinto Priests are allowed to see the contents – the Omikoshi are usually put right up against the shrine. When the door is opened, only the priests can see the contents. A Chousa is a similar portable shrine, but would be piloted by a town resident, and children often ride on it like a parade float.)
😉 still got tons of stuff to put up though… like a kiko update…
mike, ill try calling you this weekend. ihavent spoken with you ini forever!!
Pretty cool dave. Good update!