History-backed real power displayed in summer lantern festival by southwestern Japan town
Hita, a land-locked town in Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, southwestern Japan, sees its population continuously decline, as is the case with many other local cities in Japan, but its residents are proud that the region used to be a domain directly controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate government for over 200 years from the 17th century.
Hita's real tradition-based strength is displayed in a summer festival in which gorgeously decorated tall floats lit by many lanterns slowly progress on the city’s main streets.
The 300-year-old Hita Gion Festival is performed as an evil-dispelling rite dedicated to three shrines in the central part of the city for three days in late July. As dusk falls over the area, four “Yamahoko” floats, decorated with dolls of legendary figures, gathered at a square in the Mameda district and went in procession before thousands of spectators. As many floats left the Kuma-Taketa district for a tour on a different course.
The floats, 6 to 8 meters high and 3 to 5 tons in weight, were pushed by dozens of young men from behind with a few steersmen in front.
The performance by the teams from the Mameda district culminated when their Yamahoko floats ran up a slope toward a bridge at the end of Uwamachi Street one by one. Music played by their bands on board went into full swing.
Mameda Yasaka Shrine is located on a corner of the Mameda district, the most attractive tourist spot in Hita City, which has a population of about 70,000 at present. An old shrine keeper received worshipers while holding a time-honored lion mask said to be a shrine treasure. “Please come on and have your head bit with the lion’s mouth, and you will be protected from evil,” he said. “This mask has to bite the visitor’s head twice. When a thousand people come, I have to do it two thousand times. That’s a really tough job for an old guy like me,” he said happily.
A shop was set up in front of a different shrine at Nakajo within the Mameda district to sell miniature charms to spectators. “This charm can keep evil spirits away for you,” said a shopkeeper, who was in his 70s. A girl and a few women were seen buying four or five “paipai” charms of small paper flowers. “You can place them not just at the entrance of your house but also put them to your car or at your kitchen,” he said.
The festival was designated as a national folk cultural asset in 1996. Most Yamahoko decorations are newly built every year, but "Miokuri" embroidered drop curtains for some floats are more than 100 to 150 years old. The number of centuries-old cultural assets is expected to boost Hita people's spirits and enrich the town's atmosphere further.