Hachioji Festival Just Achieved A New Record Recognized By The Guinness Book!

Every year during annual Hachioji Festival many people make a line to dance through on National Rd.20. They dance "Bon Odori (Bon Dance)" which is one of Japanese cultural dances for summer. As I have introduced "Bon Odori (Bon Dance)" previously on my another blog, it is the dance for a special term called "Obon" to pray for their deceased family and ancestor. There are many kinds of songs for the "Bon Odori (Bon Dance)", because most areas have their local folk songs and people dance  "Bon Odori (Bon Dance)" with them. Each songs have its own sequence of movement although it is usually not so complicated.

Then this year, Hachioji Festival organization decided to break the record of the world largest  "Bon Odori (Bon Dance)" to be registered by The Guinness Book. Actually next year (2017) is the memorial year of 100th anniversary for Hachioji municipal system, so people wanted to add a special record for it.

On the August 6th, local people for the total of 2130 made a long oblong circle extended to 2 km (1.25 miles) on the Rd.20 and danced "Bon Odori (Bon Dance)" with a local folk song to challenge a new record. Actually it's not only about the number of people, since it is a record of 'dance', dancers had to know all the sequence for the dance and couldn't make a mistake. 

Apparently only one person was cut out from the record because of making mistake for the movements. However, they succeeded to achieve the largest Bon Dance world record recognized by the Guinness Book! Congratulations to Hachioji people!

How Do Festival Carts (Dashi) Vie In Music At Hachioji Festival?

I introduced various traditional festival carts (Dashi) of annual Hachioji Festibal in my previous post and wrote these festival carts are rivals each other. So their designs are all different and people on these carts compete each other in music play and performances, too, at Hachioji Festival. Then how will they vie in music?

At Hachioji Festival, each Dashi cart has music instruments and the players on it, such as drums in various sizes, traditional flutes, and other traditional percussion instruments. Japanese traditional festival musics are called "Ohayashi", and actually people on each Dashi cart play "Ohayashi" with their own rhythm. 

When two or more than two Dashi carts meet on a intersection of National Rd. 20, which is the main street for Hachioji Festival as shown in the photos on the upper row, they start competing in playing musics. It is called "Buttsuke (hitting)" and one of the must-see-points of Hachioji Festival. Since each of them has own Ohayashi music, the "Buttsuke (hitting)" becomes like an ensemble of different rhythms. Thus, keeping own rhythm is the decisive in the competition. When one cart's musicians lost their rhythm influenced by other carts' musicians, it means they lost in the match.

Of course it is not so serious competition. It is to make the festival more exciting. So after the music competition, people on carts praise each other and throw very thin paper tapes called "Spider net throwing tapes", or confetti called "Kamifubuki (paper  blizzard)" from top of these Dashi carts as you can see in photos on the lower row. The ending of "Buttsuke" looks cool, too!!

The video below shows a sample of Ohayashi music and wolf and fox performers at Hachioji Festival.

Ready For Japanese Summer Festivals? Here Are Some Main Items Of Traditional Festivals

Now many places are going to have summer festivals same as fireworks festivals which I have introduced in my previous posts! The annual Hachioji Festival will take place from this Friday to Sunday. There will be many traditional festival items and stalls along Rd.20 near Hachioji Station.

What are traditional festival items? I'd like to introduce most common two items here. One is "Mikoshi" which is shown on the upper row of the photos and the other is "Dashi" which is shown on the lower row of the photos. 

Mikoshi are portable shrines. Each Mikoshi belongs to a Japanese Shinto shrine and it is used for carrying the god/gods of the shrine during festivals and ceremonies. (It is also called Omikoshi since the prefix "o" adds politeness/respect to a noun in Japanese language.) Mukoshi bears a structure of a shrine with a special shape of Shinto shrine gate called "Torii" as you can see in the photo in the middle of upper row. During non-festival times, offerings are placed in front of Mikoshi as shown in the upper left end photo.

On the other hand, Dashi are decorated festival carts although the name can be different depending on the area. They also belong to shrines, but they are designed for festival's performances, so they always carry people. As you can see in the photos, there are drums on the cart for musicians and masked performers positioned in the front row. People can also stand on the roof to give directions to the people pulling the cart. The role of standing on the roof of Dashi would be a star position at festivals.

Both Mikoshi and Dashi are usually maintained by a neighborhood community around the shrine they belong to. For example, in Hachioji downtown, there are small neighborhood communities called "Chonai-kai (town association)" in every few blocks and each community has at least one local shrine. The community people take care of the shrine and they carry Mikoshi and pull Dashi at Festivals. It is a traditional form of Japanese town and the city of Hachioji, which has a long history as an old post town, still maintain it. 

Although not all of the shrines have both Mikoshi and Dashi, for Hachioji Festival, all Mikoshi and Dashi in the downtown area will be on the National Rd.20 (Koshu-kaido). There will be a total of 21 Mikoshi and 19 Dashi this year!

Even if you are just a visitor, you can join in to pull Dashi at Hachioji Festival. Some of the neighborhood communities are inviting people to pull Dashi together. It will be a fun experience!

Photos of Geisha's Performance at Hachioji Festival in West Tokyo

The photos above were taken at Hachioji Festival. As I introduced a couple of times previuously, Hachioji downtown is one of the towns which real Geisha are still working. Historically Hachioji had been a big post town famous for silk fabric. The downtown prospered and more than hundred Geishas were working at one time but that number dwindled as the silk business decline.

Apparently there are 18 Geishas still working in Hachioji (in 2015). Hachioji Festival is one of the good opportunities where people can see their performances for free. Every year, they show dances and play traditional instruments in the evening of the first day of the festival.

Last year, a newcomer was introduced on the stage. She is the one who wears a light purple Kimono with very long sleeves in the lower photos. Actually she was a teenager therefore was still in training. geisha's work involves serving alcohols at parties and she had not yet reached Japanese legal age of drinking/serving alcohol. She was in training to be Geisha but it was okay to appear in a dance with other Geishas.

Perhaps we could call her “Geisha Intern”, but actually there is a special word for her status. The girls on training to be Geisha, are called “Hangyoku” and the translation is “Half Jewel”. The name came from an old custom that the price for a Geisha was called “Jewel Fee” and the charge for intern girls was half of a Geisha since they were still trainees.

By the way, “Half Jewel” and “Jewel Fee” were used in Tokyo area only because the circumstance and the culture about Geisha are different between regions. For example, in Kyoto which is the most famous place for Geisha where people can frequently see Geishas on the streets, the intern girls are called “Maiko”. It means “Dance Girl”, and Geishas are called “Geiko” in Kyoto. Even the name of the price for a Geisha was called differently, which was “Ohanadai” and it means “Flower Fee”.

There are more posts about Hachioji Festival and Geisha in 2016!

A Short Movie Of Traditional Festival Cart At Hachioji Summer Festival, Hachioji-City Tokyo

August is one of the major vacation period for Japanese people and also it is a time of festivals. Traditionally Japanese towns are divided into small neighborhoods and people in each neighborhood make up a community called “Chonaikai” which literally means "Neighborhood Association in Town Blocks". In Japan "Chonaikai" is usually the smallest unit of local communities.

Old towns such as Hachioji-City in Tokyo still keep the traditional activities based on “Chonaikai”. There are around 20 “Chonaikai”s along Rd.20, a historical national road in Hachioji downtown, with their own traditional festival carts called "Dashi" or portable shrines designed for festivals called "Mikoshi" belonging to their neighborhood shrines. 

“Chonaikai” come together for Hachioji Festival every year, held for. Three days in the first weekend in August. During the festival people in each “Chonaikai” walk on Rd.20 pulling their festival carts and playing their festival music. The movie above shows one of the festival carts pulled by the “Chonaikai” people along Rd.20.

There are more posts about Hachioji Festival, Dashi (Festival carts) and Mikoshi (Portable shries) on this website! Please check!

Post on August 4th 2016 "Ready for Summer Festivals? Traditional Items for Festivals"

Post on  August 6th 2016 "Annual Hachioji Festival, Look At Various Festival Carts!"

Post on August 8th 2016 "How Do Festival Cart Vie In Music At Hachioji Festival?"

Post on August 11th 2016 "Mikoshi Gathering At The End Of Hachioji Festival"

Post on August 13th 2016 "Hachioji Festival Just Achieved A New Record Recognized By The Guinness Book"