I would like to show my favourite festival as Otsu is my hometown! (Photos are from 2011)
今年もやってきました、大津祭の季節。
地元出身としてちょっとアピール。
Sunday is the festival day.
The 13 floats start to parade from Tenson shrine, the home of the festival.
The parade starts from the morning to the early evening.
日曜は朝から１３基の曳山が天孫神社を出発して巡業を行います。
The musicians get on the floats, and play the traditional festival music all day.
The music is slightly changed to more speedy and exciting music, and the town really comes alive.
お囃子隊も全員曳山の上にのり、大津の町はお囃子に包まれます。
宵山のときよりノリのよいものに変わったりして、お祭りムード満点。
The float is heavy. We need lots of people to draw it.
曳山は何人もの人たちが綱で引いていきます。
Otsu has the biggest lake in Japan so that our city is a sister city to Michigan in USA, where also have a lake.
Some students from Michigan come to Otsu every year for the internship.
I think the people in the photo are those students.....
They were doing volunteer job to draw floats.
I thought it is a brilliant idea.
It's quite rare chance to join the foreign festival not only to watch it.
By the way, my partner was very excited too.
(I guess the festival is really "The Japan")
滋賀県は湖つながりでアメリカのミシガン州と姉妹都市であり、
ミシガン州の学生が毎年研修に来ているのですが、
たぶん、おそらく、その学生たちであろう外国人たちが、曳山を引くボランティアをやっていました。
日本のお祭りを見ることはあっても、参加することはそうそうないと思うので、とてもいい機会だと思います。
ちなみにうちの相方もめちゃくちゃ興奮していました。
（すごく「日本」らしいですしね）
The float is very heavy and it has only 2 wheels.
It's very hard to change the direction.
(They have to lift up the float to change the direction.)
とっても重いうえに二輪の曳山、方向転換はかなり大変です。
（みんなで持ち上げて一気に方向を変えます!）
The parade is not only marching.
They stop at several points and show the mechanical dolls' performance, which is the main of the festival.
Those dolls are the ones of the oldest in Japan although they were repaired some times in the history, therefore they are not the originals.
Those dolls are all different from each floats.
The names and the stories of the performance of the floats were adopted from the Noh, Japanese classical drama, legends, and historical events.
(It's not related to area itself)
ただお囃子隊が曳山でパレードするのではなく、
ルート中、いくつもの箇所でストップし、このお祭りのメインである曳山のからくりを見せます。
からくり人形たちは（修理しているのでオリジナルではありませんが、）日本でもかなり古いものです。
曳山ごとにすべて違い、山の名・からくりの由来は能楽や故事から取っています。
（別にその曳山のエリアの歴史に由来、とかではないと思う。）
This is Gekkyuden-zan, another name is "Tsuru kame-zan".
The story comes from the Noh "tsuru kame (crane and turtle)".
"Tsuru kame" is the story about the Chinese emperor had a party to celebrate a new year.
The doll with pink kimono has a crane on his head, and the doll with green kimono has a turtle on her head.
They are dancers and they are dancing in front of the emperor.
こちらは月宮殿山。別名「鶴亀山」。
能「鶴亀」にちなみ、鶴と亀に扮した踊り子が皇帝の目の前で舞を踊っているところ。
This is Seioubo-zan, another name is "Momo-yama" (Momo means peach)
Seioubo (Xi Wangmu) is a Chinese goddess who had a special orchard of longevity peaches.
But somehow, they added the episode of Momotaro to the mechanical doll's performance.
Momotaro is the popular hero of Japanese folklore, who was born from a peach.
In this photo, Momotaro just came out from the peach.
こちらは西王母山。 別名「桃山」。
中国の西王母という女仙が長寿の桃を与えた、という伝説に、なぜか日本の桃太郎が合体。
これは桃から桃太郎が生まれてきたところ。
After the doll's performances, the musicians scattered Chimaki and tea towels from the floats.
Chimaki means a traditional Chinese sweets, made of glutinous rice.
But in the Otsu festival, Chimaki means a talisman. (you can't eat it, but they also scatter edible one too! )
It's very hard to get Chimaki. If you get it, you are very lucky!
Chimaki protects you from bad luck for a year if you put it near the front door of your house.
I used to collect chimaki from all of the floats when I was a little....
からくりのあとはお楽しみ、厄除けの粽や手ぬぐいがばらまかれます。
毎年ほんの少しだけなので、取るのに一苦労。
小学校のとき、何の意味もなく各曳山のの粽を集めるため曳山を一日追っかけていたなあ…
ちなみにこの年は、相方の外国人の魅力を使わせていただきました。（笑）
The trick to get chimaki is to get attention from the musicians. lol
I believed the Otsu festival was the best in Japan when I was a kid since I didn't know about Gion Festival.
(Gion Festival in Kyoto is one of the biggest festival in Japan.)
But, I think you might enjoy the Otsu festival more than Gion festival.
Because it is dreadfully too crowded to walk around at the Gion festival.... lol
The Otsu festival is smaller, but you can get closer and it's still similar to the Gion festival.
So, come and see their nice smiles!!!
ちなみにその小学校のとき、お囃子のかっこいいお兄さんを追っかけていたのも事実です。（笑）
祇園祭の存在を知らなかった子供の頃は、この大津祭りが日本で一番のお祭りだと信じて疑いませんでした。（笑）
でも実は、祇園祭よりもっと楽しめるお祭りかもしれません。
祇園祭のように鬼ほど込んでないので…（笑）
こじんまりしているけれど、祇園祭と似ていて密に楽しめる分、お勧めです。
皆さんもこのさわやかスマイルに会いに来て下さい!
↓ 宵山は今週土曜から! Click here for the rankings!
*tabi memo*
Where to see
The Otsu Festival 大津祭
http://www.otsu-matsuri.jp/festival/
より大きな地図で 大津祭マップ を表示
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