Pat's Blog

The Bon Odori Dance, held in the main street in Takamatsu is always a colorful and spectacular event. More’s-the-pity my camera battery died and I had to resort to my cellphone to do the job. The pictures aren’t the best I’m sorry. I can and usually do much, much better.



This is an annual event with Buddhist roots and held to welcome back ancestors for the three-day period Obon when hundreds of thousands of people return to hometowns to tend the graves of their ancestors and reconnect with the past.


The culmination of this is the dance itself and the spectacular fireworks display within the same short Obon period. It’s also a time when the seasons are changing and for me at least, I often sense a palpable change in weather at this time. Crickets can be heard in the evenings, the cicadas are quieter and the winds pick up particularly in the evenings and the nighttime falls earlier. A welcome respite to be sure as the sticky summer days are at times, too much.


So here’s how people unwind while back home. Dancing teams compete for prizes, company employees usually form these teams and each team has their own colorful uniforms, which are also judged for creativity and style.


The dances themselves have and are still evolving from the traditional forms, the traditional kimono wear. The young take the initiatives in these two areas and some of the creations and dance moves are very exciting indeed.



At the end of the street performances, the teams come to the Central Park to do the very same routines on stage in front of a panel of judges who decide the winners.


The Central Park is also full of street vendors’ stalls and even these are changing a little with the introduction of Turkish Doner kebabs.


Still, the traditional foods & snacks stalls are all still here as are the traditional goldfish scooping stalls, (金魚すくい) ‘Kingyo-sukui’ where one has to pick up a fish with a tissue paper scoop. Sometimes colorful rubber balls are also used for prizes. The paper gets wet and tears of course and makes things more difficult so we have to be quick!

I’ll be back next week with a very interesting blog on a little known but fantastic art museum in Sakaide. So until then, enjoy the fading days of summer if in the northern hemisphere or conversely, if in the southern hemisphere please look forward to warmer days.

  

The first signs of the fall are already with us and I heard the crickets chirping last night on my evening run. This is always a time when the summer tries to fight back with a few more sweltering days but the seasons change as they must and summer has almost gone.



This summer we’ve seen a great many events in Takamatsu and a few weeks ago, I wrote about ‘kamishibai’ or story tellers riding around on bicycles with picture stories for kids (and some a little older). In the old days, pre TV days, these people were very popular and there arrival was always announced by the storyteller clapping thick wooden blocks together to gather the kids.



The storyteller’s helper sold sweets and that’s how they made their money.



Well they’re back in business and I think that’s just great. Kids need a respite from the digital madness of games that seem to alienate them from socialization. The kids at this show were so attentive and fascinated by this chap and I couldn’t help but notice how absorbed they were in the stories.




In the greater Kansai area, several companies now employ ‘kamishibai’ to promote their products through storytellers and their small picture stages on bicycles. Food products, insurance policies, Just about anything you could imagine and it’s so nice to see this revival of an old Japanese tradition.


As a further read, Wikipedia has some interesting information on the modern history of ‘kamishibai’.

I’ll be back next week with blogs on our city so until then, keep all those cards n’ letters coming in and enjoy the coming change of season.