Last weekend was the Hakata Dontaku festival held in, well, Hakata (Fukuoka). It's the largest festival to be held in Japan during Golden Week, so it usually attracts a crowd. However, this year the weather was terrible; it went from 75 degrees and sunny to 55 and rainy for the festival. Oregonians that we are, a little rain didn't keep us away. From what I've gathered, the festival celebrates all the inhabitants of Japan, regardless of status, and even foreigners! This is a somewhat rare celebration as far as old Japanese traditions go. There is a song and dance that goes with the festival, the dance involving very subtle wrist movements and the banging together of two wooden rice spoons/paddles. The story I heard says that the spoons symbolize a woman who hears the parade go by while she's preparing supper in her home, and runs out to join in the revelry, spoons still in hand. You see, it really is for everyone.
Look at the giant cat! Also, the man in the front is dressed as a crazy cat making sly cat movements. Behind them were hordes of men and women with tails and masks, some looking rather creepy (couldn't get a good picture of them, unfortunately).
Drums and dragons!
At the end of the festival, several "dance circles" are formed and everyone is invited to join in the Hakata Dontaku dance. It looked harder than we thought at first, and besides we didn't have spoons, so we just watched. Here's proof of the swirling circle of spoon-knocking:
P.S. The new header photo is from one of the small festival stages. The performers all held fish-shaped stuffed animals.
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