With a typical Japanese summer consisting of waves of humidity, yukatas everywhere, and tons of festivals and fireworks, it’s probably the largest vacation season in a year. But as a country with four distinct seasons (日本四季, nihon shiki), the festivities continue even as the cool autumn breeze rolls in.
In Morioka, the most notable event is the August Sansa Odori Festival, the largest taiko event in Japan, with hundreds of people flocking to our small city to see it. With a couple of other festivals following, the turnout decreases more and more. Finally, in mid-September, we welcomed the Autumn Festival (盛岡秋まつり).
Seeing as how it’s named the festival of the season, I thought it would gain more traction, such as from visitors in nearby small towns. I mean, just look at this event poster.
If you’ve never heard of Morioka’s Autumn Festival or just didn’t come out to the event, here’s what you missed out on, and why you should definitely visit next year.
History comes alive
Morioka’s 2018 Autumn Festival ran from Friday, September 14th to Sunday, the 15th, and had a changing itinerary and venue for each day. On Saturday, Honey and I were surprised by the ample coin parking in downtown Morioka as we walked the 30-40 minutes there. Unlike Sansa, the streets were quiet and fairly empty at six in the evening.
But the scene turned lively as we reached the heart of odori, the main road. We made it just in time for the parade, the night’s main attraction.
Much like Sansa, people of all ages joined the festival parade, making it a truly special event. Such groups included student flautists.
Small children dressed in traditional clothing, paired with a Buddhist staff called khakkhara.
There were even government officials in the mix. In total, 9 floats made their way down odori street and likely over one hundred parade participants.
Walking storybooks
As each float went by, Honey explained to me that their depictions were from well-known novels or Japanese legends. Though I’m unfamiliar with the stories themselves, it was still an experience to marvel in the carefully and beautifully handcrafted floats. Dozens of paper flowers adorned the wooden frames. Even against the fluorescent street lamps, the colours stood vibrant and alive.
In addition to the stories they tell, each float was actually decorated on both sides. After a visit to the city’s cultural history museum where two enormous floats were on display, I learned that there is a significance to each side’s imagery. It’s said that while the front is typically powerful and ‘masculine’, the back is more gentle and ‘feminine’.
front of the float
The reason for this is to create a strong impact when you first see the float, and then leave you with a softer impression afterward.
back of the float
Beautiful and well thought out.
With a limited amount of time between festivals, it’s a wonder how participants were able to create 9 distinct floats. As if that weren’t impressive enough, it’s likely that the very same people who helped craft the floats end up pulling them too (and the drummers sitting on top).
Talk about man-power.
I can only imagine the effort put into making this parade happen. So it was only right to have captured it all here (slideshow below).
A show for the ages
On the following day, the last event of the Autumn Festival was held at Hachimangu Shrine. It featured an archery show traditionally performed by samurai on horseback (流鏑馬, yabusame). If you think archery itself is hard, imagine shooting targets as your horse gallops away at great speed.
road to Hachimangu shrine
The day was warm and sunny as we walked towards the enormous shrine gate. Just beyond there, food stalls were tending to the visiting patrons. Some climbed the many steps up to the main building, where hundreds flock to for New Year’s prayers.
With a couple of hours before the archery event, Honey and I walked around the vendors and also caught a traditional dance performance. We rang the bells at the shrine before settling in front of the marked area to wait for the main event.
The day quickly turned hot as we waited under the autumn sun, but we and many others stood still, none budging for fear of giving up a great viewing spot.
The archery performance ran the entire width of the shrine grounds, and we were nearly central to one of the targets.
At 2 pm on the hour, the show began.
For the yabusame, there were 3 performing archers, each with their own separate horseman to confirm their target hit after shooting.
Because this was a potentially dangerous event (if for some reason the horses were spooked), they first made many run-throughs, testing the target distance and dirt track.
It gave the crowd the chance to marvel at the elaborate attire of each horseman, as people in the past once did with passing samurai.
After some shrine priests checked each target, they also sent a prayer and blessed each shooting area. Then, it was time to begin.
Each archer had 3 targets. Because the length of the track was so long, it was impossible to see every one. But the murmurs of excitement from the audience as the archers rode down on horseback told you whether or not a shot was a hit or miss.
See the action for yourself below (in real time!).
archer hits 3rd target and snaps the board!
horseman confirms hit with raised fan
Archers had three chances to make a run for the three targets. Though this was kind of a serious, ritualistic event, even they looked pretty happy with themselves after a good run. Which, kind of made me happy too.
After this powerful display, the sea of visitors slowly dispersed and we took this chance to cool down with some strawberry shaved ice.
It was literally shaved frozen strawberries doused in condensed milk.
Then, it was time to head home. On the way, I reviewed my photos of the event. Here are some of my best shots from that day.
Unlike a typical summer matsuri, each day was filled with unique performances and more carefully crafted displays. First, we saw bedtime stories come alive in the parade. Then, we were blown away by the traditional performances at the largest shrine in town.
Needless to say, Morioka’s Autumn Festival was full of interesting events. It was a great way to kick off my favourite season of the year. I was happy we didn’t miss it.
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-Waifu ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Because I'm Waifu 