Nada Kenka Festival

The Nada Kenka Festival is held on the 14th and 15th of October every year and I was lucky enough to go on Wednesday the 14th, thanks to an invitation from the Himeji Board of Education.

The red town

Essentially, the portable shrines, called yatai, are paraded through the town to the entrance to the shrine, where they are vigourously heaved up and down by a hundred or so men standing underneath it.

In this festival, there were seven participating towns -

The green town enters the arena

The yellow and blue towns

Once the men have paraded the yatais, they then collide them with each other - apparently, the more noiser and the harder they clash, the better the harvest will be for the year.

Two yatais clash

Four young drummers sit inside the yatai and keep a drum beat - you can see one drummer in the photo below.

The green town heaves their yatai

The yatai weigh about 1.5 tonnes - or about the size of a small car - and the men carry it on their bare shoulders. Yeow!

Glory is fully lifting the yatai!

Is this dangerous? You betcha. Take a look at the video clip below.

Whoa! The green yatai tips over (14 secs)

The traditional attire for the all male participants is called a fundoshi - a cotton cloth wrapped tightly around the nether regions.

Bare essentials

We had the VIP seats, therefore the best view of the action.

Heave!


The yatai is supported on heavy wooden beams
which the men use to lift it

Still not sure what it's all about?
Watch it here (1 minute 40 secs)

And of course, being VIPs for the day, we were treated to lunch.

How could I forget the food shot?

People have said that men often die at this festival because the clashing of the yatais is so violent. And so yes, the following day, reports of the death of a man appeared in the papers. It is, after all, called the kenka (fighting) festival.

Until next festival (and oh yes, there's more!),
Monica