The K Experience

Fushiki Kenkayama Festival

Past - Japan

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

It's 1820, and two residents of Fushiki town in Toyama prefecture, Japan are getting bored and restless.They want something to do, or more accurately, they want something to destroy.
(BFR= Bored Fushiki Resident)

BFR 1: "I've got it! Listen. Two carts, bunch of lanterns on each. We'll crash them into each other"
BFR 2: "Hmmm...em....what else you got?"
BFR 1: "Ok, ok...they'll weigh like, a ton each...a couple of tons."
BFR 2: "How the hell are we gonna move them, you would need, like, 50 people or something to push them."
BFR 1: "So? We'll get the whole town to do it. Ain't no one doing anything, it's 1820."
BFR 2: "So what it's 1820, people still work!"
BFR 1: "Well then... we'll do it at night. Oh come on you know it will be fun, we'll give them like 50 feet run ups. We'll find a couple of idiots and stick them on the front. It'll be great, trust me."
BFR 2: "Hmmm, sticking people to the front. I think you're on to something there pall."

Over 180 years later and the Kenkayama (fighting floats) Festival is still going strong. Every year on May 15th, on HonMachi, the floats can be seen battling it out for honor. The correct name for the festival is actually Fushiki Hikiyama Festival, but it is more widely known as Kenkayama. Also, I doubt that the above script was accurate as it is said that the fighting is in honor of the deity enshrined in Fushiki temple.

I was there with a group of friend in 2004, and was able to experience it for myself. The atmosphere was amazing, and watching those floats crash into each other, with the people strapped to the front and back of them was pretty exciting. I'm sure they were strapped pretty tightly to the carts though, and I guess it was pretty safe otherwise they wouldn't have done it, or would they? Whatever the case, they were there, and leading out in the chanting and singing, and getting the crowd worked up, as you can see in the video.

The Floats looked huge, and seemed really heavy. There were at least 50 people pushing and pulling each one, and they seemed to be working really hard at it too. Being right at the front like the people in the picture on the right couldn't have been the safest place. If the carts weren't lined up properly, those guys would be the main targets, or casualties to be more accurate.

The bright lanterns covering the floats made the whole thing all the more spectacular, and being at night, it just would have been a bit rubbish if they weren't lit up, no one would have seen anything. What would have been really cool though, is if I brought my own ladder to sit on. Then I would have had a great view of the whole thing. Alas, not everyone can be like the guy in yellow. The guy in Yellow wasn't the only bizarre person I saw at the festival. I saw these guys too.

I met them before the whole crash bang thing, and as they were in costume, I thought they were part of the push me pull you crew. But the crew were in totally different costumes, so I have no idea who these guys were. I'm not sure what they guy on the right there is doing with his fingers though. Everytime I had taken a picture of a Japanese person while in Japan, the only finger sign they would use would be the peace sign, sometimes backwards in ignorance (which would not have gone down well in the UK), or nothing at all. I had never seen the three finger sign in Japan before. Maybe he was telling me to read between the lines, but I'm not sure the humble residents of Fushiki wouldn't knew about that. Well, he could have come from out of town.