Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri

Well another week of tiring work over and what better way to unwind than a nice relaxing weekend? Nah just kidding I went out and did some interesting stuff instead, I can rest when I’m dead ey. The agenda for this weekend was a visit to Kishiwada, a district of Osaka, which was hosting a Danjiri festival this past weekend.

What is a danjiri festival you may ask. Well it involves pulling large portable shrines, known as “だんじり” (danjiri) around the streets of your city or ward, with giant ropes, at high speeds. Kishiwada’s is particularly famous throughout Japan due to the sheer number of danjiri they have, around 80 I believe.

Now as you may of guessed this sounds a little bit dangerous, in fact when I told any of my Japanese acquaintances my plans I was told either “あぶない“　(dangerous), or ”気をつけて“　(take care). I was a little bit worried but it seemed a fantastic opportunity to witness something very deeply steeped in Japanese culture, and very far removed from my own. I couldn’t really resist.

My partners in crime for the weekend were Sam and Yuko. Sam and I departed our mountain home early Saturday morning to travel to Osaka and check into our hotel. I’d had a bit of difficulty finding us somewhere to stay earlier in the week and had actually by chance come across an advert for a capsule hotel. This had been on my “to do list” for a while and it was also very cheap. Win win really.

It had been raining a fair bit the previous night, leaving myself and Sam a bit worried that things may be called off. I checked Kishiwada’s website and it claimed that the festival would go ahead rain or shine so we decided to just go for it. I think the rivers have still not fully recovered from the typhoon two weeks ago though as many of them seemed close to bursting their banks.

We got to Osaka in good time and scouted out our hotel. It was in a very lively area packed with many Izakaya, restaurants, pachinko parlors, karaoke bars, and other more nefarious establishments. This reflected well the main purpose of capsule hotels, which is as a stop off point for middle-aged businessmen who have been out on the lash.

After checking in and dumping some of our stuff in a locker we headed back to the station to find out where to take the train to Kishiwada from. It was pretty straightforward but unfortunately Yuko had some problems at work causing here to be late, so we bought some Takoyaki for lunch and waited at the station.

A little later than planned, but at least finally all together, we arrived in Kishiwada. The weather had actually improved a fair bit and things were looking good. As we left the station we were presented with huge crowds of people. It looked like the festival was extremely popular.

A huge precession of men and women of all ages dressed in kappi, a kind of short jacket bearing the symbol of their guild, and white headbands marched towards us down the central high street with a giant length of rope in tow. In the distance we could hear the sounds of bells, flutes and drums indicating the location of the Danjiri. At the corner of the street the troupe came to an abrupt halt. They moved into some kind of order and, with a loud cry began to yank the rope as hard and fast as possible, pulling the Danjiri around the corner.

It was really quite an impressive sight though our location was not ideal so Yuko suggested we moved on a bit. We passed through the streets of Kishiwada that were lined with all kinds of merchant stands. These were mostly food stands as you can imagine in any festival. Of course not the things you’d find in a British carnival they were all very Japanese, typical fare like sembei with a fried egg on top, takoyaki, and anything you could imagine on a stick (including cucumbers and omelets).

As we approached the main intersection a festival official speaking, I’m assured, in a heavy Osaken accent ushered the crowds behind a rope as Danjiri came from all directions. We’d found the location where all the different paths intersected and we were in for a show. It was really quite astonishing to see those giant wooden carts being hauled around the corners of roads, with the guild masters jumping and dancing on top the whole time.

As the day wore on the weather took a turn for the worse. This didn’t seem to stop th cart pullers though, in fact they seemed to speed up. This could of course been due to the fact they were getting steadily drunk as well. We noted that in every procession there were people pushing trolleys stacked with of plastic cups and kegs of beer, clearly festival essentials.

Another rather surprising sight for Sam and myself was our first spotting of a Yakuza gang member. We hadn’t noticed him till the rain had started due to the long-sleeved white T-shirt he was wearing. However once soaked we could see through to the intricate tattoos underneath. Of course this doesn’t mean too much, though they are uncommon in Japan, but he also appeared to have part of his little finger missing.

 

According to Yuko Kishiwada is a hotbed for Yakuza activity, hardly surprising as the “山口組”Japan’s largest Yakuza group is based in Hyogo. After seeing this guy we actually started to note a few more. In fact it turns out that the Yakuza play a big part in the festival organization as they bring together a lot of the peddlars and stalls that line the streets.

By about 5pm the Danjiri and their bearers (interestingly also known as 組　“gumi” as the word simply means group) took a break before the night time precession. We explored a bit more of Kishiwada including one of its large malls. Inside to my joy was a Caldi, time to stock up on import goods.

At 7pm the things began to get lively once more. The Danjiri parade began anew, although a little bit more subdued now in terms of speed. As the sun had well and truly set the carts were decorated by huge arrays of paper lanterns. I guess this was the reason they were moving a bit more slowly as they were now a severe fire hazard. That being said the music and shouting was no less enthusiastic.

 

The whole even had a really great atmosphere and it’s very interesting to see a usually reserved people letting their hair down. What was nice is whilst there were many men staggering around drunk I didn’t see a single punch being thrown, a far cry from home I’m sad to say.

On the topic of drunks we were actually approached by two older men whilst looking at our map. The easiest way to start talking to people is to pull out your map apparently. Of course we didn’t understand a word they were saying but Yuko took the opportunity, with some relish, to teach us a bit of Osaka-ben. It is really interesting actually as I’ve said before. Japanese dialects, due to the limited number of sounds in the language, dramatically change the way in which words, and sentences are structures.

Osaka-ben is very much based upon increasing the speed at which words are spoken. Many words are shortened or slurred and there is also a greater emphasis on intonation. I get the impression it’s perceived as a bit ‘rough’ in Japan but I really like it, it reminds me of scouse or Geordie back home.

After a long day of wandering around we finally headed back to Osaka for the night, though not before sampling some ‘Jark Chicken’. It was rubbish and not Jerk chicken but I shouldn’t be too shocked, heavy seasoning is just alien to the Japanese way of cooking and this turned out to be chicken with a bit of mild chili sauce.

We headed back to the hotel, though not before stopping off at the neighboring Sega club were I thrashed Sam at mariokart, I think he’s still hurting a bit. Although I could have done with a wash the Sauna below us had a ban on tattoo’s. I’d heard it was a common thing though this was actually the first time I’d come across it, I guess the association between gangsters and tattoo’s is a very tight one.

Upstairs in the hotel we slipped into our rental yukatas and chilled out in the lounge for a little while. All the customers of the hotel were male, I think the vast majority of capsule hotels are male only. Quite a few were still pretty drunk and smoking away in front of the TV.

 

 We retired to bed at about 1am. They were surprisingly comfortable in fact and somehow there is even enough room for a T.V and a radio in there. On the whole capsule hotels weren’t such a horrendous experience. The only faults really were the fact they aren’t very friendly, unlike a hostel you don’t really interact with any other customers. Also the booming announcement that woke us up at 9am essentially telling us to get out wasn’t greatly appreciated.

Mata kite kudasai.