Saijo Matsuri
The Exciting Saijo Festival
(Ehime, Saijo city, Isono shrine, Kamo shrine, Iwaoka shrine, Izumi shrine.)

October 15-16

The exciting "Saijo" festival is held at the four shrines of Kamo, Isono, Iwaoka and Izumi in Saijo City, the main festival being the one held at the Isono shrine. More than seventy magnificent "danjiri (festival floats)" that resemble the ones that can be seen at the Gion festival in Kyoto and four "mikoshi (portable shrines)" are displayed at the Isono shrine. Each of the "danjiri" consists of three tiers and they are 5 m in height and over 600 kg in weight. Fifteen to twenty men support each of these floats, which have decorative wooden panels or carved openwork pieces adorning their middle layer. The "mikoshi" which have large wooden wheels, each of 1.8 m diameter are also gorgeously decorated with thick black and purple mats with white tassels, which have dragons embroidered on them in gold thread. The dragon is believed to bring the rain that will produce a good harvest. The highlight of the festival starts at nine o'clock in the morning of October 16th when more than seventy "danjiri" and the four "mikoshi" are lined up along the Kamo river. When the "mikoshi" attempt to cross over to the other side, some of the "danjiri" also go into the river and try to obstruct them. The spectacle of these opposing teams of "danjiri" struggling in the river is a very exciting one.

Awa Odori
Awa Odori Dance Festival (Tokushima, Tokushima city)

August 12-15

About 400 years ago, in the era of Azuchi Momoyama, the feudal lord, Hachisuka Iemasa constructed a castle and the people of his domain celebrated by dancing into it. This event is said to be the origin of the "Awa Odori" dance festival. Nowadays, on the day of the festival, the people of Tokushima first perform dances at the graveyard of Hachisuka Iemasa and then proceed into the city. They dance to the "Yoshikono- bushi" song which was adopted by the festival about a hundred years ago. Famous dance groups from all over Japan gather in Tokushima to celebrate the festival. They number about 950 groups consisting of about 105,000 dancers, who perform enthusiastically over the festival days. The famous phrase of the dance song is "Dancers are foolish but spectators are foolish too. If both are foolish, then we should dance together". The female dancers wearing pink summer "kimono" dance in formation but the male dancers move more freely while bending their bodies, etc. The "Awa Odori" dance is nowadays performed also in several other areas of Japan such as in Tokyo, Saitama, Aichi and Hokkaido.

Yosakoi Matsuri
Yosakoi Festival (Kochi, Kochi city)

August 9-12

The most famous folk song of Kochi prefecture is the "Yosakoi-bushi" song. This is an Edo era love song which describes how the love between a Buddhist monk "Junshin" and his girl friend "Oume" went on 200 years ago. A line of song means "At the Harimaya bridge at Tosa in Kochi, a Buddhist monk bought an ornamental hairpin for his girl friend, Yosakoi, yosakoi (It's OK, It's OK..)" The "Yosakoi_bushi" song has been popular since this era. On August 10th and 11th, the people of Kochi perform the "Yosakoi Naruko Odori" dance all over the city. Each group consists of 100 to 200 dancers. The official festival dancers wear traditional pink summer "kimono" and woven straw hats, while the young people dance in their modern dress fashions to the rhythms of rock and roll bands. All of the dancers hold "naruko" clappers on their hands. In total about 8000 dancers participate who perform their dances as a way of praying for the good health and prosperity of Kochi.