NAMAHAGE Festival held during 3 days is composed of Shintoism, ‘Drama where NAMAHAGEs visit your home’, ’’Ancient dram music’ and NAMAHAGE parade. A lot of kinds of NAMAHAGE are found and they were told to come here from north foreign countries.
Coordination in advance of early check-in and early dinner in your hotel and transportation to reach the venue are strongly recommended for the best place to enjoy NAMAHAGE Festival.
namahage festival venue
’Drama where NAMAHAGE visiting your home’
This video is one scene of NAMAHAGE festival. NAMAHAGE could visit your home to scold lazy children in winter season because they stay away from the fireplace. After scolding, Japanese SAKE is served as a sigh of gratitude.
’Ancient dram music performed by NAMAHAGEs’
Ancient dram music was played and performed in the heavy snow ! Except for in the winter season, you could enjoy these performance in the theater near hot-spring town. Take care of your place or positioning if you would like to record real performance in the festival.
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Japanese style of bullfight is completely different from Spanish one. It’s a fight between bulls and
like Japanese wrestling ‘SUMO’ with a table of ranking.
Fights are held about 10 times according to the ranking.
bullfighteyes return red
Judgment of winning or losing is decided naturally with the breath of “Aun” and may sometimes be settled by face confusion !
Bull eyes turn red from fighting spirit. Indeed, the Yokozuna, Champion of bullfight, won by its face and red eyes without real fight !
bullfight venue
Bullfight festivals are held 4 times a year on Hiraniwa Heights in Iwate prefecture. According to the web page the starting point of bullfighting is to match the cows in order to decide which one to lead the caravan of transporting salt from Sanriku coast. So Hiraniwa Heights is located near Kuji city on Sanriku coast.
bullfight ready go
bullfight
eyes return red
‘YOKOZUNA'(champion)
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The fireworks powder used sulfur mined from the volcano. In the Edo period, the production of gunpowder was banned, and the technology was handed over only in areas related to the Tokugawa shogunate government. So, owning a volcanic area was of strategic importance.
Do you remember studying the flame reaction of metals in a junior high school science experiment? The gorgeous color of fireworks is achieved by mixing a powder with a metal. It comes from a metal that emits a single wavelength when an electron excited by explosive energy returns to its original state, producing a pure color.
like Rock Fes
The origin of fireworks is wolf smoke. Fireworks are now enjoyed at night, but at the Ohmagari Fireworks Festival, you can also enjoy the daytime fireworks, that is, the colors and shapes of wolf smoke.
Daytime fireworks1
Daytime fireworks2
The Ohmagari Fireworks Festival was not just an event to enjoy fireworks, it was an examination committee that competed for the skills of fireworks masters. The examiners were introduced on the public broadcast, but I didn’t know if it was work or play because they could see fireworks in the special seat.
The competition consists of three parts: a 30cm size concentric style fireworks ball, a freestyle of the same size, and creative fireworks that match the music. A community FM station ‘HANABI’ was broadcasting the progress, but when listening to it on Internet radio via smartphone, there was too much time difference and it was difficult to listen to. It will be also useful in the event of a disaster, so let’s buy one FM radio and bring it with you.
Fireworks at night1
Late check-in at Mizusawa Hot Spring
I parked a car near Tazawako station to avoid strong congestion around Ohmagari, where I might have not gone out even from the parking space at Ohmagari until next morning! (It’s true). A local line was used between Ohmagari and Tazawako. For the countryside, it was a crowded train like Tokyo.
Mountain cottage2
Mountain cottage1
Hot spring
<Caution !>
Many people come to see fireworks on a day trip by bullet tour from remote areas such as Tokyo and Sendai. After the fireworks, it is possible to leave the venue in the early morning and it seems that the arrival will be around noon.
The Ohmagari Fireworks Festival is held every four seasons, but the summer 2020 has been canceled due to the covid-19.
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When you are lucky in sightseeing in Matsushima, you sometimes come across blue impulse flight training. This is because there is an air base in Higashi-Matsushima town, which is adjacent to Matsushima. Suddenly a roar comes from the sky. However, Blue Impulse is busy on a business trip to events all over the country, and if you see it locally, you go to the air festival in August to be prepared for congestion.
Finding top gun talent is a daunting task. No matter how hard you try, you will not be able to reach the entrance to the top gun without having the ability to be born.
F2 Fighter
The fighter is also just as delicate. It cannot take off and land even if a small piece of debris falls on the runway. When the Matsushima Air Base was swallowed by the tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake, 18 fighters(F2) were swallowed along with it. After the earthquake, they would have been better to take off before the tsunami and escape from the difficulties, outsider thought, but unless the fighter is prepared to take off and the runway is clear, it will not take off. Then, the reason why scrambling is possible is that it is always idling. What a delicate thing !
On the other hand, Blue Impulse was on a business trip to Kyushu Shinkansen opening event at that time, so they have escaped the tsunami.
Even so, the east-west main runway at Matsushima Air Base receives a strong crosswind, but is that okay for a delicate fighter?
Each community in Tono city showcases traditional performing arts, for example, Kagura dance, Deer dance, Tiger dance, Sansa dance, etc.
We pay homage to the fact that many communities are maintained and traditional arts are inherited in Tono City, which has a population of only 30,000.
Let’s get mochi (rice ball) thrown from the mikoshi and deer hair after the deer dance for your good luck. Never overdo it.
Gallery (click photos)
tono festival dance
tono festibal deer dance
at the end of deer dance
tono festival dance
tono festival dram
tono festival dance
tono festival mikoshi
tono festival dance
Parade Video
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The origin of Tono horseback archery (Yabusame in Japanese) is in Kamakura (Tsuruoka Hachimangu shrine). It was brought to Tono (Tono Hachimangu shrine) via Hachinohe (Kushibiki Hachimangu) in Aomori prefecture as well as ‘Kappa’ story. But the distinguishing feature in Tono’s is that the another warrior runs to see if the previous warrior hits the target successfully or not. If the arrow hits the target, he will yell out “Yo itariya (Good shooting) ! “, but it sounds like “Yo Italiano ! “.
Each warrior runs 3 times on the track and he shoots a bow three times on each run.
This festival is held for 3 days in the end of August. Each neighborhood association(small town) competes for floats composed of the festival car decorated* by a lot of arts(dolls) based on classical subject and the following musical accompaniment. The decoration is like ‘Nebuta’ in Aomori.
*)Due to festival cars decorated only one side (left side in the direction of parade), pay attention to the trends of the locals so that you do not fail to pick up space(side) for seeing the festival parade.
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