灘のけんか祭り - Nada Kenka Matsuri

I just love how travellers' guides sometimes softens the truth... The Nada Kenka Matsuri is the most famous festival in Himeji (and the biggest kenka matsuri in Japan), so I just had to go check that out, right? Searching for some information before going I noticed something written on my guide:

"Kenka Matsuri (...): Portable shrines, shouldered by half-naked youths, jostle each other and the bearers vie to show their skill in balancing the shrines."

... Almost.

The festival was being held on October 14th and 15th, 2005. I was planning to go with some friends on 15th, but it rained a lot and the festival was postponed. So, we went to the festival on October 16th.

Since it's a famous festival, obviously it was crowded... REALLY crowded. Thankfully Jon "attracted" (being "gaijin-looking" surely has some advantages...) a "senior citizen" who used to participate the festival and he acted as our "local guide" explaining somethings (like the height of the yatai, a.k.a. portable shrines, and the height of the temple's portal are related so that the upper part of the yatai must be removed when passing through the portal... Something like when people put off their caps to show respect.) and guiding us to the good spots. So we were able to see some interesting things of the festival, like the mikoshi fighting and climbing the hill.

Now some explanations. According to the Metropolis Tokyo web site, "Nada's fighting tradition harks back to the Edo period (1603-1867), when Japan's emperor dispatched an armada to the Korean Peninsula. The clashing and grinding actions of the yatai during the festival mimic those the sailors used to dislodge offensive crustaceans from their ships' hulls en route to battle."

So, usually the first day is dedicated to some rituals and preparations for the next day, when each village brings its yatai/mikoshi (yatai is the beautiful-looking one and it's not used in direct clashings. Mikoshi are simpler and often end up with some damage) and men carry it from one shrine to another, and there're some kind of "rings" in the way so they can "destroy" the other villages' mikoshi/yatai. (The yatai rarely even touch each other... it's more like one team breaking others' balance... but for the mikoshi it's real clashing.)

Since it's a shinto festival, it's somewhat anti-feministic. The festival itself emphasize machismo for the violence itself and for the fact that only men can participate. Women aren't even allowed to touch the shrines, flags and these kind of things (our "guide" invited Jon, Rezaur and me to try lifting the yatai, but not Silvia). Besides, with cigarettes and beer, some may turn violent. And another thing that makes me think... Drunk people carrying portable shrines with weight up to 3 tons?! No wonder this festival is classified as having a certain hazard level... I heard that in some years there're even some deaths... Didn't noticed any, fortunately...

Ah... and another thing that is noticeable from the pictures is that people carrying the yatai/mikoshi wear mawashi (that sumo wrestler's "belt"). This website says that there's something related about strenght/stamina and nakedness (I really don't see the relation... neither the person who wrote that site...)... Yeah... that's strange...

More information in the following web sites:
Nada Kenka Matsuri Information in English
姫路・松原八幡神社-灘のけんか祭り