Tuesday, October 20, 2020

(2214) Matsuri in the time of the epidemic

Nihon_arekore_02239_Covid_19_Sanja_Matsuri_1_100_cl

In May, they postponed it for now and although the reasonable thing to do would be to cancel it altogether, Asakusa Jinja, the shrine holding the Sanja Matsuri, Tokyo's biggest festival, decided to have it last weekend but in a Covid-19 variations. So instead of the shrine's three big omikoshi and the neighborhoods' 150, only a big one came out and it was processed around Asakusa on a truck. The procession was: first two motorcycle policemen and a truck with the shrine's crew...

Nihon_arekore_02239_Covid_19_Sanja_Matsuri_2_100_cl

...then another truck with musicians playing special matsuri music (matsuri bayashi/祭囃子)...

Nihon_arekore_02239_Covid_19_Sanja_Matsuri_3_100_cl

...then the shrine's main omikoshi, Ichi no Miya (一之宮)...

Nihon_arekore_02239_Covid_19_Sanja_Matsuri_4_100_cl

...and in the end, the shrine's priests. 

Nihon_arekore_02239_Covid_19_Sanja_Matsuri_5_100_cl

Here, I got it just at the moment it was passing in front of Kaminarimon.

(For a bigger version of these pictures both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr. For pictures of how the real Sanja Matsuri is there are four more albums there!)


0 comments: