Kanuma Festival

Our big activity for the weekend was attending the Kanuma Imamiya Shrine festival.  This two day, 400 year old, festival originated in 1608 when the city experienced an extended drought.  After praying for rain and receiving it, a celebration was held.  This festival has since been held annually.  Each town in the city has their own carved float that they pull into and out of the shrine.  Most of the floats have a long history, the oldest we noted having been made in 1812.

We watched as the floats were pulled back and forth down the streets during the parade.  As you can see, there are people inside the floats playing music and people on top clapping and chanting. Each team had their own unique hanten jacket uniform.

At the shrine we were able to witness a Noh performance.

One of the best parts was checking out the food stalls.  It turns out you can get just about anything you want on a stick.  We had to try the chocolate covered banana.

Drew ate half of his before I could even get a picture.

I also got to meet Berrychan!  Some sort of strawberry mascot that was making the rounds.  The Tochigi area is known for their delicious strawberries.

Lanterns are hung on all of the floats as it gets dark to prepare for the band competition.  The floats gather in groups and let their bands duke it out, culminating with a firework show.

I added a couple videos below that hopefully captured the spirit of the day.