Michinoku Geino Festival! Oh. My. Stars. The pageantry! The
food! The fireworks! Okay, give me a moment to compose myself.
Okay. I think I’m good.
HOLY SHIT IT WAS SO COOL!
Sorry. Sorry! Seriously, I’m okay now.
The Michinoku Geino Festival is a traditional Kitakami
landmark event that takes place over three days. It’s as much about folklore
and heritage as it is about the music and general festival atmosphere.
Michinoku Geino roughly means “Performing
Arts Festival.” During the three day event, over 100 groups of onikenbai,
shishi odori, etc., performers show off their mad skills. To review:
Onikenbai:
Shishi odori:
Etc…:
Kitakami is especially proud of Onikenbai since it
originated here and has been a traditional art form for 1300 years! While it
means “Demon Dance with a Sword,” the masks do not represent demons…it’s
Buddha! There are eight dancers in each group, the leader wearing a white mask while
the others wear blue, red, green or black: each of the four colors represents
the seasons.
Shishi odori is a dance to commemorate deer, but it later
became about praising Buddha. It’s fun to watch this dance not only for the
impressive costumes but for the unique style: the dancers self-accompany with
drums strapped to their bodies. As they dance, they not only look like stags
pawing at the ground and charging each other, but the sound of the drums is
indicative of their hooves and antlers clattering together. It makes for quite
the specatacle! Bambi’s gotta step it up to compete with these guys…
The parade opened with priests giving a blessing over beer and sake. These dragons are getting a little snack of rice and sake....
Then passing on the blessing...or just breathing drunkenly on bystanders. Either way...
Japanese deer...just as widespread as American deer. These suckers are everywhere!
Rise of the Oni...
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