Ishidori Matsuri


Only 18 minutes on the rapid train from Nagoya-eki was the town of Kuwana. Our friend Ryan recommended the festival as the best he had been to, so we met again in town and headed out.

"In this district, it was once the custom to gather small rocks from a river bed to pave the grounds of shrines. The rocks were loaded onto a small vehicle and then transported to the shrine while sounding gongs and drums. It is said that those small vehicles were the origin of the Ishidori Saisha now used in the festival." -jnto website

This was a very noisy festival with lots of drums, cymbals and shouting.

OK, lots of photos, but they give a view of the atmosphere. Big crowds, all happy.

Each neighborhood has its own float. When we arrived they were all lined up in the street. Some of the young kids were having a go at drumming.

The Noisiest Festival


The noisiest festival in Japan. I am talking loudly in the video and shouting at the very end.


Ishidori Matsuri

This was a terrific festival. It was spread out and there was a lot of things going on, you did not have to fight to get in close and you could easily get close to participants or maybe get an offer of beating the drums yourself. It was very hot and with 30 floats doing the same thing it was a lot of the same thing but do not let that put you off. I would definitely go again.


Near the front of the parade



Heave ho


Lifting the back of the cart


Each float would move off the starting line. Stop a few meters in front. There would then be 10 minutes of singing and drumming and it would move on to the next stop and it would then start again. Each of the floats took off one by one until every float was drumming and singing and moving.



Do remember that this goes on for hours and hours and with many floats. Some more, some less enebriated than this lot

The three wheeled floats are called Ishidori Saisha.


Taiko drumming


Moving the float. Note that the lanterns are down


The lanterns are up


Everyone had a go


xx


Interested spectators. Note how big the hats are!


It was a real party


It just went on


There were so many floats


Preparing to start the shouting


Off we go


Later in the afternoon


Some floats had mechanical puppets


The dancing went on


The drummers bashed away


We made friends


... good friends


The colour of the crowd


singing


dancing

Each float had it's own drinks cart following it.


Singing


Dancing


Browsing


Toward the back of the parade


These guys really wanted me to take a photo of the back of his jacket.


There must have been 30+ floats


Everyone had a go, young and old.


Waiting for their turn to begin


We left as the sun went down. It had been extraordinarily hot.

TIP - If you come to the festival it goes from about 4pm through till after midnight. I recommend arriving about 5-6pm and seeing it in both day and night.

It was loud and there was a lot of drinking, and it was one of the best festivals that I have been to!



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