Kishiwada Danjiri Museum

This summer is breezing by! It's already the last month of the internship.  There are only a handful of weekends left to do stuff!  This weekend I went to see Super 8 with Taylor and Sister Sugimoto.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Although I didn't know it was an alien movie at first; that was a surprise.

During the week we went to the Kishiwada Danjiri Museum that is all about the major festivals they hold here every September and October as a commemoration of the harvest.  A danjiri is a massive cart shaped like a shrine or temple and houses a kami. The festival entails pulling danjiri through the city streets, all the while yelling and thumping taiko drums and bells.  They go tearing through the streets and whip around corners at (sometimes literally) breakneck speeds. I mean, these people go crazy pulling this things around. Each section of the city has their own danjiri, as well as their own signature coat that they all wear.  Eventually everyone congregates around Kishiwada Castle (which, despite being almost in my backyard, I only recently went to see; details to come later).

If you want to get an idea of the scale of this event, take a look at this clip I pulled from YouTube.

At the museum, some of the oldest surviving danjiri were on display.  One of them was covered in lanterns, though, as that is what they do with them after they congregate at the castle.  The celebrations continue into the night, with each district's danjiri is adorned with lanterns bearing the district name.

Here's one a little less covered in flaming red canisters.

Check out that woodwork! It's AmAzInG! Oh, and this one's almost 200 years old.

On the next floor up was a collection off all the happi coats that are worn by the people in the various districts in Kishiwada during the festival.  Curiously, because the Satos live so close to the castle, their neighborhood is considered to be part of the castle grounds proper and as such weren't a separate district and didn't get their own coat when these coats were first designed.  

There was also a replica of the lower and upper parts of a danjiri for photo-ops.  The lower half has two taiko drums and a bell, which are what make such a ruckus while they fly down the streets.  I got to play on it and hammer out the danjiri groove.

It goes thump-thumpa-thump-thumpa-thump-thumpa-thump-thumpa? Okay, I think I got it.

I sincerely wish that this festival happened in July, while I'm here.  If it were feasible to somehow return in September to see this festival, I would do it in a heartbeat.  This is honestly the coolest way to celebrate the harvest I've ever seen.  

Lookee! I'm the crazy guy on the top of the careening float!