Tag: horse

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Hachinohe-Sansha Festival (Aomori Prefecture)

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Stages with dolls in gorgeous costumes protrude in all directions(10m height, 8m width) from the decorated floats, and ancient stories unfold on it.   A long time ago, inspired by the movie “Truck Guy”, trucks decorated with lights transported supplies throughout Japan late at night.　 It seems to have originated in Hachinohe.   If you are fun to watch NHK new year’s eve red-and-white singing contest program,  the mechanism could remind you of the famous singer, Sachiko Kobayashi.    Anyway, you are overwhelmed by its gorgeousness.

hacchi parade1 treasure boat
hacchi parade2 carp on the waterfall
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hacchi parade3 Yang Guifei (the Best)
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hacchi parade6 dojouji
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hacchi parade11 demon extermination
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hacchi parade14 Taro Urashima and princess
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hacchi parade15 umihiko and yamahiko
hacchi parade16 happy new year

Packed decration float during the day on the road

I passed by the folded float during the day, and was impressed by how compact it was folded.

hacchi preparade1 packed decoration
hacchi preparade1 packed decoration
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Cavalry battle similar to polo in Chojasan-Shinra-Shrine

Yabusame can be seen anywhere in Japan, but cavalry battles can only be seen here.  A horse divided into red and white throws its own ball into the goal while disturbing the opponent’s ball insertion.　It’s hard to reach the goal even if there are no obstacles.　Prizes are given to the winners by the descendants of the Nanbu clan lords.

hacchi cavalry7 disturb the opponent
hacchi cavalry7 disturb the opponent
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hacchi cavalry2 concentrate his own color ball
hacchi cavalry3 goal
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hacchi cavalry8
hacchi cavalry9
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hacchi cavalry14 prize

hacchi cavalry15 tired~
hacchi cavalry15        tired…..tired…..tired…..

The Best Detour

The northern Tohoku region was a large living area during the Jomon period (the era when people changed from hunting to sedentary life).   Gassho, meaning to join hands,  clay figurine was excavated in Hachinohe.   This is the only clay figurine with the spiritual meaning of gassho.

hacchi clay figurine2 national tresure
hacchi clay figurine3 national teue mark
hacchi clay figurine1
Goats are cleaners around the museum

Dinner of mackerel dishes and market for breakfast

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hacchi mackerel dishes2
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hacchi mackerel dishes4
hacchi hauchi
hacchi stall
hacchi market1 sun rise
hacchi market2 st.Mutsuminato
hacchi market3 300yen breakfast
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hacchi market5 lunch box on express

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Chagu-ChaguｰUmakko (Iwate Prefecture)

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chaguchagu2 takizawa village
chaguchagu2 takizawa village

It takes place on 2nd Saturday of June.   Iwate, especially the north of it, named ‘Nambu’ has been a horse production ares.   A pair of sculpture in front of shrines as a guardian ae sometimes changed from dogs normally to horces.   Humen and horses live together under the same roof in the countryside.  Humen  pray their health and safe and the road of pray had became the parade from countryside(Takizawa village) to Morioka city of more than 100 horses dressing up which are nurtured with care in each house.

chaguchagu4 rest
chaguchagu4 rest

*)It takes almost half day on foot(14km) when you follow the parade, so it is a good idea to stay ahead of the curve using trains(st.Aoyama,etc).   The parade takes breaks on the way several times and then nursing baby horses get milk from their mothers.

chaguchagu6 morioka city
chaguchagu6 morioka city

At last, poud parade groups marches through Morioka city and Sansa Dancing welcomes them early in advance the festival season without controling their impulse.

chaguchagu5 rest
chaguchagu5 rest

 

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Mt.Akita-Komagatake with rich alpine plants,  Moomin valley and bears that occasionally appear in the fog

Akita-Komagatake in clear

Horses and humans have a long history.   It is said that in early spring, a horse is seen in the shape of the remaining snow on the mountain and cultivation is started after the shape appears.   Therefore, there are many mountains in Japan with horses ‘Koma’ as their names.   Similarly, there are mountains all over Japan with Mt. Fuji as a part of the name, but all of them are called ‘the area name + Fuji’, which is similar to the shape of original Mt.Fuji.   However, ‘Komagatake’ has no originator, so each ‘Komagatake’ is an originator and the locals call it only ‘Komagatake’ without ‘the area name’.

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alpine plant6 akita
alpine plant7 akita
alpine plant8 akita

Akita Komagatake is composed of two calderas, with a milky-white Nyuto hot spring in the north, a colorless Mizusawa hot spring in the west, and an emerald green Kunimi hot spring in the south.   It is a treasure trove of alpine plants because the airflow from the Sea of ​​Japan hits the mountains and clouds easily form.  Therefore, even if the lower world is sunny, fog will be applied around the top and the temperature will be quite low even in the midsummer.

Akita-Komagatake in fog
Akita-Komagatake pond

There seems to be a Moomin valley in the flower field, but recently it was described on the website that there was a personal injury due to a bear.  It’s something I don’t want to encounter in the fog.  Certainly there was a metal rod that made a sound of a bear repellent, but I wondered how effective it was and gave up on going to Moomin Valley.

On the way down the mountain by shuttle bus

Lake Tazawa looks like a hand mirror.   I was convinced that it might be the remains of the caldera volcano.

Lake Tazawa from Akita Komagatake
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horseback archery followed by certification horse riding (here is characteristic!) in Tono-go Hachimangu shrine at Tono Festival

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horseback archery back
horseback archery back

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.