My first Saturday was a real treat - there was a festival in the nearby city of Komatsu. Leslie, Joy, and I made plans to meet there (the other students were busy visiting other place). Unfortunately we got times mixed up with Joy so she ended up by herself, while Leslie and I toured the city together.
The Otabi Matsuri is the annual festival for children's kabuki. There are shops and stalls all over the place selling food, toys, antiques and crats... pretty much anything you can think of. There are various parades, performances, and theater events throughout the day, as well as blessings. During the day, shrines are paraded through the streets and prayers made, while various forms of entertainment are going on. At night time, all the shrines end up in the center of town and serve as the stage for a large kabuki performance done entirely by children. It was fantastic!
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| Shines are carted through the streets |
The town's kids march with small shrines as well |
The kids play flutes and drums the whole time |
Every group has a different uniform |
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| A good look at one of the smaller shrines |
These kids were really tired by the end of the day |
Pigeons in Japan are much friendlier and more polite than the ones in the US |
Komatsu has a beautiful park |
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| Koi fish |
Yep... more Koi fish |
The park has a statue of Lord Maeda |
Another view of the park's pond |
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| This used to be a building (a temple I think), but it burned down a long time ago and is now a memorial |
The pond again... |
Closer picture of Lord Maeda |
I took a lot of photos of the park, didn't I... |
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| Every shop offers a bottle to the shine bearers |
There was a whole lot of sake... |
The priest offeres a prayer every time a bottle of sake is given |
Spotted! Those are the children's kabuki actors after their first show |
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| The kids wanted to play some of the games and look at souveniers |
Now *that's* a big shrine |
They really liked French fries too |
Sucks to have to pull that through the street... |
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| There was a taiko performance near the Shinto shrine |
More taiko shots... |
I tried to get some good action shots, but they moved too fast to get a good pose |
And... more taiko |
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| A shot into a Shinto shrine |
The kids drink green tea from straws to avoid messing up their makeup |
The kids line up for a photo shoot before the nighttime performance |
This tv newswoman was reporting on a giant 6-or-so-foot wide bowl on ramen... mmm... |
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| All the shrines pulled through the city became the set for the kabuki play |
A wider view of the shrines |
They even lit up at night |
The kids line up as their characters are introduced before the show |
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| They all did neat little poses that kind of reminded me of anime |
More awesome poses |
The costumes and makeup were really fantastic |
More character introductions |
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| Aren't the kids adorable? |
More poses... |
Yep... more poses... |
The set was pretty big |
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| I wish I could've understood the play, it seemed really interesting |
The kids line up to be interviewed on the news |
I was lucky enough to get a photo with one of the gorgeous Komatsu girls... ahhh |
Pink lanterns adorned all the buildings in Komatsu -- I think this was the breeding ground for them |
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| The stages were really pretty when the sun began to set |
There was a narrator and a koto or sangen (or something) player on a nearby stage |
I'd never seen Kabuki in person before |
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| More shots of the stage with the kids acting. |
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| The kids were fantastic; their voices sounded just like professionals, and they had all the motions and expressions down perfectly |
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| I really wish I had some idea of what the story was... |
