At last, the Fox Festival

The Fox Festival

It's been a while since I have actually made a post. I am only now getting to write about the Fox Festival that Kudamatsu has every November. This year I actually participated in the Fox Festival. This involves getting dressed up in something very like a kimono and carrying around a bloody heavy portable shrine of sorts to celebrate the Foxes' Wedding. It more or less works like a parade with different community groups carrying around their team's shrine. 

Don't feel too bad though. There were many stops where all those carrying the shrine stopped to have liberal swigs of beer or sake. Though, that is not how the day starts.

Foxes are revered in southern Japan and The Foxes' Wedding Festival has a lot of significance in this area too. A local community member of with whom I have the pleasure of having the odd conversation gave me this explanation:

The guests of honour... so to speak.

“The Origin of Fox Wedding”

Once upon a time, a Buddhistic priest lived at the Hosho Temple in Hanaoka, Kudamatsu-city.He practiced ascetism to get a higher spirit of Buddhism, and he was virtuous and longed to be like the older, more experienced priests.One day, he went to Tokuyama [[city next to Kudamatsu]] and it was evening when he had finished his errands.After the sun set he was heading for his temple, but he wasn’t anxious about walking in the dark, because it was a familiar road. After he had passed the hills, he could see his temple. Suddenly he noticed that he had lost his Buddhist rosary.He looked for it everywhere, but he could not find it. He was obliged to return to his temple, but he could not fall asleep all night becuase of worrying about the rosary.He was dozing off for a moment, when something appeared to him, vaguely, because of his half-awake, half-asleep state.The spirits that appeared said, ‘We are the spirits of the white fox mates from Shiamuga forest. We have brought your rosary tonight. In return for it you must bury our dead bodies like human beings at this temple.If you grant our request, we will promise to protect the temple and the people who live in the nearby village from disasters.’After hearing the voices, the priest awoke. To his surprise there was the rosary, which he had lost somewhere, laying near his head, neatly coiled.The priest immediately took the dead bodies of the white foxs and buried them the same way as human beings. He then held a memorial service for them.Thereafter people increasingly came and visited the temple hoping for the miraculous recovery of things which had been lost. The temple had become famou for finding ‘lost things.’ The white fox mates have been enshrined in the precincts of the Hosho Temple since then.The Inari Matsuri (festival) is held annually on Novembr 3rd here at Hanaoka, Kudamatsu-cit. The pageant claled F”Fox Wedding” is very famous in this area.Every year on November 3rd, visitors come and see the pageant. Usually more than 40000 people attend.

The day starts with our group sitting down and eating and drinking while everyone waits to get their face painted. This was probably the most fun part as the day. They did their best to speak English to me as I tried to use my pitiful Japanese. After about two hours of good food and drink and some quite able face-painting, we were off. Everyone was having a blast despite the rainy weather. 

This is the lady that painted my face! I had a few interested onlookers. 

We went to carry our shrine for about 15 blocks at most. It wasn't terribly far, but like I said, the shrine is very heavy, even with many people carrying it. Every two blocks or so, we would stop and spin the shrine around really quickly to amuse the onlookers. The whole time my team was shouting and chanting and having a good time. The only time we were quiet was when the Buddhist monk blessed on shrine.

My team is the team in the foreground with our shrine. 

All in all, this was possibly my favourite event in Japan which is a big deal given that I've been here for five months now. I'll leave you guys with two shots of some of the other floats! My next post is coming tomorrow! Have fun!