Nagasaki Kunchi

Some of the gifts that were displayed on the Saturday night before the festival.

One of the kasabokos.

(Dragon Dance)

The Ship of the Seven Gods of Fortune being turned.

(Seven Gods of Fortune)

(Lion Dance)

(Tounsen-matsuri)

Hon-odori the dance of Uwa-machi.

Montakoi Montakoi!

(Encore)

(Kawafune)

Last week was the Kunchi festival. It is Nagasaki's biggest festival and it only takes place in Nagasaki. The towns in Nagasaki alternate hosting the festival every seven years. The performances they give are an offering to the deity of the Suwa Shrine. The town that is in charge of the festival start practicing and organizing in June. The festivities started the Saturday before. For three hours people could walk around the shops and see the presents that were going to be given to the performers and organizers and they could see the costumes. On Wednesday early in the morning the people organizing got up uand decided at three in the morning if they were going to hold the event that day. If it was raining the festival would just be extended. On Wednesday they did decide to hold the event and everyone knew because the sound of the fireworks going off at five in the morning. On Wednesday morning I got up and watched the first performance at the Suwa Shrine with my host family. Even though it was early in the morning everyone was so excited and energetic. Each day the performers had multiple performances until late at night. As I sat and watched my host parents went through all the acts for me and told me about them. My host mom also pulled out a couple of photo albums that contained photos of when their town was hosting the festival. On Wednesday night I saw the performance live with the other two Rotary exchange students. The first act was Hon-odori dance of Uwa -machi which was a traditional Japanese dance. It was also the first dance to be offered up to the Suwa Shrine. The next act was Kawafune which means river boat. A boy cast a net to catch some fish on a boat. Inside the boat were 12 children playing drums. After the boy catches the fish 16 people pull and turned the boat around. It is supposed to show how the boat goes in the waves. The third act was Tounsen-matsuri. Children played their instruments on a ship which looks like a ship from the Chinese dynasty Tang. The sixteen men dragged the boat around and turned it to the rhythm of the music. The forth act was the lion dance. The fifth act was Shichi-fuku-jin. They are the seven gods of fortune. The band and the gods rode in on the biggest ship and on the flag on the top the kanji said treasure. The gods did a dance and then the men once again turned the boat multiple times. The last act was Ja-odori which is the dragon dance. Ten men moved the dragon while one held a gold ball which represented the moon or the sun. The dragon danced while following the golden ball. This year there were three dragons dancing which is unusual many people told me. While the dragon was dancing there were people playing the trumpet, a gong, and a drum. In between the performances there was a dance of the kasaboko. Each town has their own kasaboko. On the kasaboko it has the towns name, decorations representing the town, and cloth draped on the sides of it. Every kasaboko is really heavy and there was only one person underneath carrying it. Since the people underneath couldn't see another person had to guide the others underneath with a flag. The festival lasted until Friday. On the last day my host family took me to where some of the acts were walking around such as the boats being carried and the children playing their instruments and then occasionally they stopped and did their performance. The seven gods of fortune came around to each store and blessed it. It was so cool to see their costumes up close. I couldn't believe how extravagant the festival was and can't wait to attend more festivals. The people of Nagasaki love festivals.