I love a festival! The Takayama Sanno Matsuri.

The tiny town of Takayama, located in the region of Japan that is referred to as the Japanese Alps, plays host to two seasonal grand festivals (or matsuries) each year - the Sanno Matsuri in spring and Hachiman Matsuri in the fall. By all accounts, the Takayma Sanno Matsuri is one of the most beautiful festivals in Japan.

The Takayama Sanno Matsuri began about 350 years ago as a simple village ceremony.  It is the annual festival of the Hie Jinja Shrine which was originally built in 1141.  Today, the matsuri still takes place at the shrine but it's no longer a small village ceremony.  It's now a major event for this town and draws visitors from all over Japan as well as from around the world.

The Sanno Matsuri takes place on April 14th and 15th and is held to pray for a good harvest.  The highlight of the two day festival takes place on the second day and it's a procession of twelve magnificent wheeled yatai (float) dating from the 16th century which are pulled through the strees of the town.

The festivals are famous for the large ornate floats, or yatai.  The floats date back to the 17th century, and are sumptuously decorated, both on the outside and the inside, with intricate carvings, gilded wood,  detailed metal-work, rich tapestries, and lacquer finishes.  There are 25 floats in all; 12 are for the Sanno Matsuri, 11 for the Hachiman Matsuri and 2 are reserved for other functions. 

In olden days, the wealthy artisants and tradesmen of Takayama were prohibited from using their wealth to upgrade their social standings. So, they used their wealth in beautify their daily lives. The festival was one outlet for their wealth. Several households would come together to construct a yatai with each member donating his share according to his means.  Thus, each float was jointly owned by a community.  Over the years, the yatais became more and more extravagant and each community of float builders larger and larger.  Today, each of the floats represents a specific district in Takayama.

Although the festivities don't begin until six weeks later, the Sanno Matsuri actually starts on March 1st, when the order of the proccesion of festival yatai is decided.

On April 14th a ritual ceremony takes place at Hie Jinja shrine.  If the weather is not rainy or dreary (to prevent damage), the yatai are lined up before dusk. Once evening falls, Japanese lanterns are lit on each of the floats and a procession with hundreds of towns people wearing traditional costumes, begins.

April 15th is a highlight of the festival.  Leading off the procession of the 12 dazzling floats is a procession of towns people performing traditional music and dance. 

A unique feature of several of the yatais are the karakuri (marionettes) tthat adorn the float.  The marionettes are skillfully manipulated by teams of puppeteers, ridng inside the float, using a complex arrangement of cables and levers so as to make the karakuri move in a lifelike manner, with gestures, turns and other movements.

I found a snippet of the performance of this marionette on a YouTube video.  Watch how the face changes from the start to the end of the performance.  Amazing!


The festival finishes with another ritual ceremony at the shrine. 

After having read and seen all the images of the Takayama Matsuri, there's no doubt that I have to witness this unique ceremony.  Crossing my fingers that we make it happen!!