The Final Of The Festival

The Hakata Yamakasa Festival finished on the 15th of July.

The Final Rehearsal

The Hakata Yamakasa Festival is drawing near to the climax. I went to see “Oiyama Narashi”, which was the final rehearsal, on Saturday. Eight floates are carried and run through the town and vie for speed. Many people were waiting for two hours. It was tiring to wait under the hot and humid weather, but I really wanted to see it since I have not seen it yet.

The first carried float starts at 15:59. The floats goes into Kushida Shrine, makes a round of a long pole called “Seido” and all men sing a song called “Hakata Iwai Uta” which is a traditional song of celebration in Hakata. The only men who carry the first float are allowed to sing it. Then the float goes out of the shrine and runs through the town. The other floats start every five minutes later in order.

The right float is so big, as well as a decorated float, that I could enjoy the dynamic and brave running.

It was really hot and humid on that day but I enjoyed it. The finale is in the early morning on the 15th of July. I am going to see it with a few friends and really looking forward to seeing it!

The Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival

The Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival has started! This is an annual festival in Fukuoka held from the 1st to the 15th of July. They have two kinds of floats, which are called "Yamakasa" or "Yama" here, Kazari-yama (Decorated float) and Kaki-yama (Carried float). Kazari-yama is publicly released at 14 places in the city during the festival, and I went to see one of them at Hakata Station.


This is really beautiful. Each Kazari-yama is 12 or more meters high and weighs 2 tons. In the olded days, this sized float used to be carried. However, electrical cables had been wired since the late 19th century, the floats often cut the wires. Therefore, they had to separate the floats into two types.

Speaking of Kazari-yama, I hear that it costs about 10 million yen to make a Kazari-yama. However, one of the sponsors cancelled its cooperation and it endangered the continuation of Kazari-yama. Fortunately, officials scrambled to find a new sponsor and a few local companies such as rail companies and oil companies kindly agreed to observe the traditional culture. Then it was January that the continuance was decided because of the new sponsors. Thus thanks to many people's efforts and cooperation, this festival can be continued now.

Anyway, the festival brings us to summer! I would like to enjoy it as much as possible.

Questions about my culture

I saw the South Korean President on a TV talk show last night. I did not watch it all, but he talked to over 1,000 people on the show. He said, "I'm not the best person, but I desire to be a person who tries to do his best all the time." Also, he thinks that we must not forget the past history between Korea and Japan, but we should develop close friendly relations together. I think that he made a good impression on us. I really hope we can be closer.

Speaking of which, I have something on my mind. The reason why the President made a good impression on us was that he was humble. Then, why do people, especially Japanese, like such a humble person? In Japan, modesty is a virtue and we have several kinds of honorifics such as respectful, humble and polite language. The book, "The Tale of Genji", which was written in the tenth century, already used a lot of honorific expressions so that it has a very long history. In addition, we should not express our emotions openly, but why? I would like to know why humbleness and not expressing our emotions are important for us. In spite of the fact that I tried to find it out on the Internet, I have not got any information yet. Is there anyone who could tell me about it?