百万石まつり (Hyakumangoku Matsuri)

Although all kinds of festivals, big and small, take place in Japan throughout the year, the majority of them (and some of the biggest ones) take place in summer. And this weekend Kanazawa was alive with the energy of Hyakumangoku Matsuri (百万石まつり).

Let me explain. “Hyakumangoku” means „million koku” – and koku is a unit of volume, rice in particular. One koku is enough rice to feed one person for a year and meaures approximately 23.6 stones.

And the festival itself is held to celebrate and commemorate the arrival of daimyo (feudal lord) Toshiie Maeda to Kanazawa in 1583. The name Hyakumangoku Matsuri came from the fact that Kanazawa and nearby areas, formerly known as Kaga-han (Kaga feudal domain), and which were ruled by the daimyos from Maeda clan, was known as the richest, albeit small, han producing one million koku of rice.

That’s all about history, but what about now? Well, like pretty much every other festival in Japan, this one is a chance to eat (what kind of a festival doesn’t have food stalls?) and to have some fun. And since it’s the biggest festival in Kanazawa, there’s plenty of opportunities for both – the whole thing lasts three days, from Friday to Sunday, just so that you can have enough fun to last you until the next big event.

And so on Friday, with a group of friends, we went to Higashi Chaya-machi, a geisha district, where the so called Kaga-yūzen Tōrō Nagshi (加賀友禅灯ろう流し), that is floating lanterns, hand painted with the tradition Kaga-yūzen method, on the waters of river Asano. Despite crowds coming to see that, and despite quite a poorly thought out stand with sponsors and VIPs, which was too bright, thus taking away some of the charm and ruining pictures, it was a truly enchanting event! On the one hand it looked like a sea of candles upon dark river waters, and on the other – like a swarm of fireflies slowly approaching down the stream. Add some live performances of taiko drummers and a Japanese singer performing quite traditional enka songs… Magic, absolutely magical!

You’ve no idea how much I’d love to share with you the full wonder of Tōrō Nagshi, alas!, my camera struggles a lot to take pictures in the dark without something to support it. And to make things worse, only after the whole thing I thought that I could just film it >.< So I’m sorry, but you’ll have to do with these poor quality pictures, because I can’t even knick some off my friends (none of them shared theirs yet).

Preparations.

First lantern.

And then on Saturday, the main day of the festival, the biggest thing happening was the parade. Technically speaking, it’s supposed to re-enact daimyo Maeda entering Kanazawa: how it could have looked like, who could have taken part etc. But out of about 2200 (!) people taking place, just over 700 were in modern clothes. Firefighters and the police, a few marching bands and acrobat-type performers, lots of kids and adults, simply speaking: Kanazawa was showing that it’s just as happy from its feudal lord today as it was in XVI^th century. If it was up to me, I’d skip this modern part, the parade was long and slow enough without it, and citizens dressed in period costumes and playing various parts – farmers, priests, courtesans, warriors – made a much bigger impression than this US-Thanksgiving-Day-like part.

But this bit aside, I did watch the entire thing until I was rewarded with the sight of daimyo Toshiie Maeda coming. Apparently every year they ask some famous Japanese actor to do this, but I don’t know Japanese actors, full stop, so I can only rely on my friends’ comments that he was in fact famous. The pamphlet I got at the beginning of the parade tells me that this year Toshiie Maeda was played by Ryūji Harada (龍二 原田). I don’t know the guy, but when he passed me by on his horse, well, let me tell you, he can be my feudal lord anytime he wants. ;D A friend standing next to me and filming this bit even got me on camera spontaneously exclaiming “He’s quite cute”!

Female policemen (and male ones behind them, of course).

The girls were actually showing 百万石, but the 百 didn't fit.

Lion dance.

Priests carrying mikoshi (a portable shrine) from the Oyama Shrine.

Daimyo (finally!) arrives.

Toshiie Maeda's firstborn, Toshinaga Maeda.

Toshiie Maeda.

At the end of the day there was a big dance done by various people from Kanazawa, the so called Hyakumangoku Odori-Nagashi (百万石踊り流し). Anyone could take part (though I was fine just watching and cheering my dancing friends on), and probably every possible organisation delegated a group to represent them, from schools, through mobile companies all the way to Japan Post. Crowds were dancing, equally numerous crowds were watching and the general spirit of joy was contagious. It may seem like not too much, it’s essentially a gigantic, well organised march of people dancing at the same time, almost a flash mob, but when I was watching and listening, I felt the spirit of groupwork and all of us being one, sharing the local patriotism for Kanazawa; something like “it doesn’t matter where you’re from, right now all that matters is that in one way or another we’re from Kanazawa, so let’s celebrate that by having a good dance”.

If I ever manage to return to Kanazawa, I sincerely hope that I’ll catch another Hyakumangoku Matsuri. I’m still enchanted by the whole thing and even if during the day I complained a bit about the crowd, at the end of it all the magic of floating lanterns or thousands of people dancing as one truly won me over!