The Cart and Flame: A Comparison of Kishiwada’s Danjiri Matsuri and Kurama’s Fire Festival

During my 20th day in Japan, September 14, I attended Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada. The streets were crowded with people but a large part in every road was clear because the point of Danjiri Matsuri is various guilds pull shrines through the streets.

Each guild wears matching headbands and happi coats, which are traditional Japanese coats with a distinctive crest imprinted on them. The crests are to show the association of each quild. There were also people wearing less traditional attire. For example, I witnessed was a group of young people pulling the shrine to be wearing what appeared to be Waldo costumes. I think today’s Japanese festivals, though keep most tradition, we can always see pop culture peak through.

The event had a very thrilling atmosphere. Part of the reason for Danjiri being famous in Kishiwada is due to the speed of the carts are pulled through the streets. People on the carts play music on drums and flutes and the guild leader’s dance and jump on top of the carts as the cart is pulled faster. Dozens upon dozens of people hold rope and pull the shrine with an amazing energy, cheering a special kakegoe. Kakegoe literally translates to “hung voice.” It is used in kabuki, various matsuri, music, and kendo. The meanings vary but it sort of is like shouting, “heave ho” as they pull the carts through the streets. They often cheer with the rhythm of the music and the speed at which they pull. The cheer was especially intense when they pulled the cart around a corner.

There were hundreds of stalls containing food and games with prizes. One of my favorites was the game of goldfish scooping. Other such tempting games were raffles where you depended on luck. There was also a hoop throwing game. I even saw a game with live baby turtles involved and one with eels. No matter what though, you get some sort of prize, even if it is just a postcard. Most of the prizes ranged from toys, shirts, posters, anime and character merchandise, and buttons.

While watching a shrine get pulled, I saw one kid’s legs drop from exhaustion and but still clung to the rope and so his body dragged on the street. He probably received the worst road burn. I was worried that the kid would get trampled but he was taken to the side to safety.

From various sources I’ve heard about how dangerous Danjiri Matsuri can be. Various teachers have told me that the shrines are known to have tipped over and crush people. Upon further research I found that there is even such a thing as Danjiri insurance for local store owners. The fact that insurance exists shows that shrines crashing into buildings is a common enough occurrence. There are many ambulances around as well due to common injuries during the festival. The most dangerous part is the carts going around the corners of streets, that is when tipping over is most risked. Also the guild master dancing on top of these carts is probably in the most danger. There have been various stories of the guild masters falling off the carts.

I’ve only experienced Danjiri Matsuri this one time and it was at Kishiwada. I later learned that Kishiwada is the most famous Danjiri Matsuri in all of Japan.

My friend and I got a lot of attention due to being foreigners. One of the men pulling a shrine handed me a plastic cap of samurai style hair. When I wore it I received a lot of attention from Japanese people. They smiled, laughed, and took photographs of me. Two young boys even stopped playing and ran up to a fence to stare at us, shouting “gaijin!” The amount of attention I got tripled when I wore the plastic samurai cap. Little boys often pointed at me and, seeming amused, chatted to their friends.

I attended the Fire Festival in Kurama further into my stay in Japan on day 58, October 22. From what I heard, this festival is incredibly old and popular. Due to constantly being told how crowded it’ll be, I thought the problem would be solved by going early after lunch. To my surprise, the trains to Kurama were already jammed with people, shoulder to shoulder.

The festival did not begin till 6pm so my friends and I had some time to explore. Kurama was beautiful and surrounded by mountains. I found through a brochure at the local shrine, that Kurama held many annual observances, the Fire Festival being one of many, yet I had not heard of the others and in fact it was the Fire Festival that was least written about in the brochure.

We got to climb the mountain before the festival began and it possessed the most beautiful trees, gates, stones, shrines, and ponds. It had the atmosphere of nature and entering another world. At the foot of the mountain when the festival began, that atmosphere was gone though. It was super crowded and it felt like one third of the crowd was all police trying to herd the crowds. Every time we stood in a spot, a policeman would tell us we had to move. There was no end to being herded like sheep during the festival.

The young male participants of the festival wore little except for headbands. I saw a lot of butts and I saw the occasional happi coat. The girls wore kimonos. They also said a kakegoe as they hauled giant torches through the streets. Well, they varied in sizes according to the age of the person who carries it. For example, children carried small torches. Not only were there torches of enormous sizes, but bonfires spread throughout the town. I saw a lot of sakaki get set aflame in the dark.

As wondrous as the festival was, it got old fast due to policemen constantly moving us and getting trapped in crowds., and we leftearly.

The festivals do have some elements in common. Both were very crowded. In Danjiri Matsuri, though not to the same extreme as the Fire Festival, policeman kept people out of the streets when a cart would come by. Both are also very popular, enough so to attract foreigners from far places and bring about people from various corners of Japan. Both seem to have an element of danger involved. I saw ambulances and fire trucks in both Kurama and Kishiwada. Though Danjiri Matsuri seemed the more dangerous one of the two, the people during Kurama’s festival had to take great care to not burn anyone or let the fire get out of control.

A big difference I observed between Danjiri and the Fire Festival was the presence of shops. There hundreds of stalls set up with various games and souvenirs at Danjiri Matsuri. At the Fire Festival, the few places that were open were full. I did not see a single stall there. Danjiri Matsuri seemed to embrace the crowds as an opportunity to make money while Kurama had no stalls and most services were closed. I think this was due to the place in which the festivals took place. Kishiwada was a city while Kurama is a small mountain town. The train to Kurama was smaller than the average Japanese train and being there was stepping into a more natural worlds with trees and mountains. It is common sense that a city would have a more business view of a festival than a small mountain town.

Another difference was the age of old the two festivals. Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada started around 1703 while the Fire Festival in Kurama is about one thousand years old. My theory regarding the strict police in the Fire Festival is that the festival has had one thousand years to get to that point. In one thousand years there is so much change so there even is certain strictness to keeping the tradition alive in the first place. Danjiri Matsuri is more dangerous, e.g.requiring more police but in comparison, Kishiwada’s Danjiri Matsuri is still very young. In the future, I can imagine Danjiri Matsuri ending up more like the Fire Festival with less freedom involved.

The experience for tourists was also different. In Danjiri Matsuri, there was a lot of special attention towards me. A girl stopped and interviewed me for a school project on foreigners attending Danjiri Matsuri and a man gave me that plastic samurai cap. With the cap on, people laughed and took pictures. I felt both included but also like a spectacle. On the other hand in the Fire Festival, I was completely lost in the crowds of people. There was no special attention, no people stopping to speak to me, and no plastic samurai hats given by strangers. Setting wise, I expected more attention in a small mountain town. Yet when thinking about how old the festival was, it made a little sense to receive less attention. Also the fact that it was dark and the most you’d see of a person is flames dancing on their silhouette.

In our class some students did not even think of Shinto to be a true religion. That brings the question, why do these festivals still exist? How many attend out of belief? I think it’s not so different from Christmas. Many atheists celebrate Christmas. People love to celebrate, preserve, and remember, so these festivals live.