Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri 2008

The Great Cart-Pulling Festival in Kishiwada
As I mentioned in my last post, after meeting Daisuke and Rumi for Sunday brunch in Osaka, I met Dave, Chris and Richie at the station and we headed to southern Osaka for the famous Kishiwada Danjiri Festival.

The Danjiri Matsuri is known as Japan's answer to the Running of the Bulls. As the most famous of Japan's cart-pulling festivals, at least one person dies each year as one of the giant danjiri (or carts) goes out of control, either throwing someone off the top of it or crushing someone who wasn't quite fast enough to move out of the way. At least you know the risk going into it and, after 305 years, you know people have to be coming back for a reason.

A little More About the Danjiri Matsuri

While it might seem like the festival is just an parade today, the festival was originally started to celebrate the harvest. This is a popular theme for this weekend, with Harvest Moon festivals in Himeji and Kyoto on the same day. The Danjiri Matsuri is also rather late for a festival, most of which take place in the summer, but it really does signal the changing of seasons (or the end of summer) in that respect.
Today, the crowds look different, but members of the Pulling team (組/ kumi) follow the same protocall that they would have 250 years ago, running as fast as they can down narrow and winding streets (which also haven't changed much, save for the many wires overhead) at full speed. There is usually a team of at least 30 people (from one town), pulling two thick ropes, running before the cart. The cart actually looks more of what I'd call a moving shrine and many of the people involved in pulling are children. The participants are mostly wearing their town's colors (or usually a traditional festival jacket, or happi), and the school girls pretty much all had their hair braided for the event.

My Japanese friend (who lives in the area) told me the beauty salons stay open late in the days leading up to the festival because so many girls want to get their hair braided. Some of them even incorporated shapes, designs and additional colors into the braids (check out the heart in the picture).

Danger, Danger

So what makes this festival have a reputation for being so "dangerous" (other than it's reputation for being in a yakuza-area), you ask? During the day, the carts can end up going pretty quickly and the old-fashioned wooden (wagon-type) wheels don't turn. When the carts need to turn a corner, then, the running team will actually pick the cart up (instead of putting wood planks down and turning it, like they do at Gion Matsuri). Each danjiri has two or three men standing and jumping around on top of the cart, waving fans, but the danjiri is going pretty, and sometimes the people on top of the carts can fall off. If they do, the results are not good. The carts can also get out of control and fall on people, but it especially happens when turning corners.
Fanfare and All the Rest
The festival lasts for two days, with a lantern parade on the evening of the last day. We decided to go on the last day, and I'm really glad we did!
We got to see the danjiri madness during the day (and check out the town & Kishiwada Castle), but the parade at night was probably one of the best I've been to so far. After dinner at a cute little izakaya (with a hobbit door - I am easily amused at times), we stood under the covered mall at the center of town (shogai, sort of like a mall arcade) as the danjiri walked past. The craziest part was that each town was also pushing around huge carts of cases of beer and chilled chu-hai (flavored cocktails in a can) to give away to the crowds, for free. I was also somehow able to talk my way into receiving four different official town fans (that the men on top of the danjiri wave around), a pretty special souvineer. The white one belonged to the head of this town's group, while the black one belonged to the mayor. I gave two away to friends in our group, but the other two (red ones) that I kept are definitely coming back to America with me in the "Japan treasures" chest.
Finally Fell Victim to the "Gaijin Trap"
After a few hours of watching the parade and talking to other people at the festival, we followed my friend to an izakaya owned by one of the local town leaders (also a good friend of the girl's dad). The cart team basically opened the bar to us (more free beer... maybe you can see where this story is headed...) and let us join in on their post-matsuri celebrations, arm-wrestling and all. I had a lot of fun, but probably overdid it and sort of had a little accident on the way home. In Japan, every street is lined with long, narrow (and often very deep!) sewers (or water drains), which the foreigners lovingly refer to as gaijin traps (foreigner traps). They aren't covered and are honestly easy to fall/walk/bike into if you arne't paying attention (while Japanese people are used to having them).
Anyways, I was into a conversation on the way back to my friend's apartment and, sure enough, stepped sideways into one of these holes and scraped my hand on the pavement when I went down. Thankfully, nothing bad happened (like when my friend scraped her leg on metal when she fell in one last year), but now I can check the gaijin trap off my Japan list (and make sure it never happens again!).

If you ever get the chance to experience the Kishiwada Matsuri, however, I truly recommend it. I've said the Tenjin Matsuri (in Osaka, July) was my favorite and have heard from many Awadori (in Shokuku, August) is good, but this festival might be able to knock the others out of the park as one of the most fun (and I swear it's not just all the free beer!).