Kenshin Kousai business
I'm not going to do a super long entry about this because due to the fail of my very old digital camera, I had to rely on my iPhone camera for most photos and that wasn't the best choice considering the dull skies that were lingering around for the parade.
I'll just mention a few brief notes.
On the Saturday, our first stop was for the GACKT Kenshin goods. Priorities, right?
After we'd spent our cash and become bogged down in the mud, we went to Rinsenji Temple to visit Kenshin's grave. There's a nice visitor's centre there too that has lots of armour, old indecipherable Japanese (I'm talking 100% kanji in faded handwriting that was often cramped and blotted) and many photos from previous Kousais. We also went to Kasugayama Castle, which was Kenshin's castle.
Just as we were leaving Joetsu that evening, the reports started coming through that GACKT was at Rinsenji. By this time our minds had turned to the chocolate fondue that we had planned for that evening, so we didn't care. Chocolate fondue > GACKT.
Sunday was a reasonably early start. The parade is the same route every year and the best place to try and get is at the main intersection where Kenshin delivers his final speech to his troops. The parade was due to start at 16:00 and we got to the intersection around 9:30. There were already soooooo many people there! It was really hot too so it was a sea of sun umbrellas and sun protection. We were the odd foreigners who decided that sun tan lotion was a more effective barrier against the sun and heat than fifteen layers of clothing was.
At around 14:00 they started closing the roads and that's when everyone really starts organising themselves and eyeing their spots. You wait until that time so that you're in the prime position to grab the best viewing spot when they open up the roads a little for people to sit on. It's like people waiting for a marathon to start...
We managed to grab a decent spot (if you ignore the woman who set up her camera tripod in my face and the other woman who sat on a stool the whole time) and were able to see the parade and Oyakata-sama well.
After the parade, we headed to the battle re-enactment area. We didn't get such a good spot there and were quite far away from the action involving Okayata-sama as we were sat behind Shingen's troops. It was fun to watch though - the use of smoke and fire against the sunset and later dark sky was spectacular!
Two of our Japanese friends had taken part in the parade and we caught up with them after the battle re-enactment. They were kind enough to give us presents....
As far as I can tell, they're the gifts you get for participating in the festival. Completely money can't buy items and it was sooooo sweet of them to get them for us. FYI - the armour they wore was 10kg o_O I couldn't run around in the heat in that, not even for Oyakata-sama...
It seems that GACKT keeps changing his mind on whether this will be his last Kousai or not and the necessary people at Joetsu City Office have already asked him back for next year (this was reported after they counted the figures and saw that he bought an extra 58,000 to the festival). I hope he does do it again.
I don't think there's another famous person in Japan that could do the festival the way that he does. Who else could manage a horse when there's 200,000 people screaming at it? Or do the battle re-enactment, baring down on Shingen at full speed and waving a sword around without injuring someone? As far as actually participating in the festival goes, he's the best choice by far. He really becomes Kenshin when he's on that horse.
This was the second time I've been. I'd like to go again, Oyakata-sama!!
I'll just mention a few brief notes.
On the Saturday, our first stop was for the GACKT Kenshin goods. Priorities, right?
After we'd spent our cash and become bogged down in the mud, we went to Rinsenji Temple to visit Kenshin's grave. There's a nice visitor's centre there too that has lots of armour, old indecipherable Japanese (I'm talking 100% kanji in faded handwriting that was often cramped and blotted) and many photos from previous Kousais. We also went to Kasugayama Castle, which was Kenshin's castle.
Just as we were leaving Joetsu that evening, the reports started coming through that GACKT was at Rinsenji. By this time our minds had turned to the chocolate fondue that we had planned for that evening, so we didn't care. Chocolate fondue > GACKT.
Sunday was a reasonably early start. The parade is the same route every year and the best place to try and get is at the main intersection where Kenshin delivers his final speech to his troops. The parade was due to start at 16:00 and we got to the intersection around 9:30. There were already soooooo many people there! It was really hot too so it was a sea of sun umbrellas and sun protection. We were the odd foreigners who decided that sun tan lotion was a more effective barrier against the sun and heat than fifteen layers of clothing was.
At around 14:00 they started closing the roads and that's when everyone really starts organising themselves and eyeing their spots. You wait until that time so that you're in the prime position to grab the best viewing spot when they open up the roads a little for people to sit on. It's like people waiting for a marathon to start...
We managed to grab a decent spot (if you ignore the woman who set up her camera tripod in my face and the other woman who sat on a stool the whole time) and were able to see the parade and Oyakata-sama well.
After the parade, we headed to the battle re-enactment area. We didn't get such a good spot there and were quite far away from the action involving Okayata-sama as we were sat behind Shingen's troops. It was fun to watch though - the use of smoke and fire against the sunset and later dark sky was spectacular!
Two of our Japanese friends had taken part in the parade and we caught up with them after the battle re-enactment. They were kind enough to give us presents....
As far as I can tell, they're the gifts you get for participating in the festival. Completely money can't buy items and it was sooooo sweet of them to get them for us. FYI - the armour they wore was 10kg o_O I couldn't run around in the heat in that, not even for Oyakata-sama...
It seems that GACKT keeps changing his mind on whether this will be his last Kousai or not and the necessary people at Joetsu City Office have already asked him back for next year (this was reported after they counted the figures and saw that he bought an extra 58,000 to the festival). I hope he does do it again.
I don't think there's another famous person in Japan that could do the festival the way that he does. Who else could manage a horse when there's 200,000 people screaming at it? Or do the battle re-enactment, baring down on Shingen at full speed and waving a sword around without injuring someone? As far as actually participating in the festival goes, he's the best choice by far. He really becomes Kenshin when he's on that horse.
This was the second time I've been. I'd like to go again, Oyakata-sama!!