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| Goldfish Mikoshi (portable shrine) at the Goldfish Festival. |
Today we went to Kingyo Matsuri (金魚祭り), or Goldfish Festival at our neighborhood shrine of Yoyogi Hachiman (代々木八幡宮). Every year the shrine holds this festival all about goldfish. Goldfish for sale, goldfish games and even a portable shrine of a goldfish paraded through by children; the festival definitely matches its name. Actually, this festival is based off a festival that existed in the area a century earlier.
In the early 1900s the area of Yoyogi had begun to develop. At this time, people enjoyed having Kingyo (金魚), or goldfish in their garden ponds. [1] During this time, there used to be goldfish sellers who would go to festivals to sell goldfish to people attending the festival. One of the bigger festivals in Edo (present-day Tokyo) was and still is Kurayami Matsuri (くらやみ祭り), or Darkness Festival. This interesting festival is held from April 30th to May 6th at Ōkunitama Jinja (大國魂神社) in Fuchū (府中) Tokyo. Fuchū was an important post town on the Kōshū Kaidō (甲州街道), or one of the five important highways to Edo during the Edo period. [2] Post towns were designated as rest areas for people traveling along these five main highways. Many goldfish sellers would go to the Kurayami Matsuri and then return home along the Kōshū Kaidō. The area of Yoyogi Hachiman was along the way back from the Kurayami Matsuri and many of the goldfish sellers tried to sell the leftover goldfish they had at the Goshagūsai Matsuri that was held here around the same time. [3]
This festival ended during the Taishō Era (1912-1926) , but Yoyogi Hachiman Shrine brought the festival back in 2003 due to local popular support to bring back the festival. [4] The festival has been held every year since then and popular with the local neighborhoods.
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| The main building of Yoyogi Hachiman Shrine decorated with the banners and lanterns for Kingyo Matsuri. |
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| One of the priests of the shrine going up to the Main Hall. The Main Hall is only open on festival days. |
Besides the Main Hall being open and the priests here, the shrine today has lots of goldfish.
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| Some of the goldfish being displayed for sale or used for games. |
The festival still keeps the tradition of selling goldfish, and there are many stands with goldfish for sale. More popular than the stands selling the goldfish were the ones holding the popular festival game involving goldfish called Kingyo-sukui (金魚すくい).
Kingyo-sukui, or 'Goldfish Scooping' is a traditional festival game that is still popular at Japanese festivals today. The game has a small, long shallow tank filled with goldfish. The participants take a Poi (ポイ), or paper scoop and scoop the goldfish from the tank into a tiny bowl. When the Poi breaks and can no longer be used, the game is over and the person keeps all of the goldfish they were able to scoop into the bowl. [5]
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| A Kingyo-sukui stall during a festival along with the bowls and Poi. |
With all of the goldfish at this festival and the popular Kingyo-sukui stalls about the shrine, this festival is especially popular with the children in the area and might be one of the reasons for its popularity and strong support among the local neighborhoods. Even the local elementary schools make goldfish art and crafts that decorate the shrine grounds and the children lead the Goldfish Mikoshi procession that is the highlight of the festival.
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| The Goldfish Mikoshi on its way. |
While not as big or impressive as the more famous festivals in Japan, it is a lot of fun and interesting to see the small local festivals that happen all over Japan. It is especially great to get the chance to see the local festival of my own neighborhood's shrine. These small festivals still have the local histories and cultures in focus and aren't distorted by the huge crowds and tourism that some of the larger festivals can't help to avoid.
References:
1. "年中行事," 八幡宮,
http://www.yoyogihachimangu.or.jp/11_event/index.html#event08.
2. Tadanao Noguchi, "Greetings From the Mayor," City of Fuchu,
http://www.city.fuchu.tokyo.jp/english/city/index.html.
3. "年中行事," 八幡宮.
4. Ibid.
5. Kaori, "I Wanna Scoop Baby," Shinjuku Daily Photo,
http://shinjukudailyphoto.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-wanna-scoop-baby.html.
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