Onbashira : A festival thats celebrated once in 6 years.
Place : Kamisuwa, Nagano-Ken, Japan.
Date : 11th,April,2004
It was hardly a week that I landed in Japan and was prodded to a Japanese class on a snowy saturday of April`03. I took a train to Kamisuwa and was walking down to the class when I saw a poster in Kanji with a hazy image depicting men riding a huge log down a hummock, I remembered watching a similar event on the national news channel in India. Hamma-san(my Japanese teacher) explained to me that its a famous festival called Onbashira which comes once in 6 years and is celebrated around the suwa area, when she said "its coming soon... next year", I was so exicted that I pledged to be there.
Onbashira is being celebrated for the past 1200 years in the Suwa region. On the eve men cut 200year old coniferous trees, then ride over them all the way from the forest to the temple complex and erect them where they stand for the next 6 years. The best part of the festival is the Kotoshi (yound men riding the logs as they slide down the steep slope) and Tate Onbashira (raising these logs as pillars) .
Kotoshi was on my cards, that morning I hit the road by 5:15AM and walked down to Hirooka station. The plan of the day was to watch people pulling the log down the hill, click some shots and walk back home. I bumped into Otsuki-san at the station, a bit of broken Japanese, some verbs and nouns got us along. Otsuki-san asked if I would like to join his group which was camping around the event place, I was more than pleased.
They were 30 odd from different professions and age groups, I started to wonder what connects all of them ? It didnt take long before Otsuki-san explained, that they all come from same school. ( Sanno Dai Gaku,Tokyo : The group comprises of students from the Nagano Region ). The very Japanese trait : Organized and Punctual showed up time and again. Done with the breakfast, we started walking towards the arena. On the way some were serving SAKE (Japanese rice wine), after gulping my quota I had to nod to the rest "ooishi" ( delicious ).
Place : Kamisuwa, Nagano-Ken, Japan.
Date : 11th,April,2004
It was hardly a week that I landed in Japan and was prodded to a Japanese class on a snowy saturday of April`03. I took a train to Kamisuwa and was walking down to the class when I saw a poster in Kanji with a hazy image depicting men riding a huge log down a hummock, I remembered watching a similar event on the national news channel in India. Hamma-san(my Japanese teacher) explained to me that its a famous festival called Onbashira which comes once in 6 years and is celebrated around the suwa area, when she said "its coming soon... next year", I was so exicted that I pledged to be there.
Onbashira is being celebrated for the past 1200 years in the Suwa region. On the eve men cut 200year old coniferous trees, then ride over them all the way from the forest to the temple complex and erect them where they stand for the next 6 years. The best part of the festival is the Kotoshi (yound men riding the logs as they slide down the steep slope) and Tate Onbashira (raising these logs as pillars) .
Kotoshi was on my cards, that morning I hit the road by 5:15AM and walked down to Hirooka station. The plan of the day was to watch people pulling the log down the hill, click some shots and walk back home. I bumped into Otsuki-san at the station, a bit of broken Japanese, some verbs and nouns got us along. Otsuki-san asked if I would like to join his group which was camping around the event place, I was more than pleased.
They were 30 odd from different professions and age groups, I started to wonder what connects all of them ? It didnt take long before Otsuki-san explained, that they all come from same school. ( Sanno Dai Gaku,Tokyo : The group comprises of students from the Nagano Region ). The very Japanese trait : Organized and Punctual showed up time and again. Done with the breakfast, we started walking towards the arena. On the way some were serving SAKE (Japanese rice wine), after gulping my quota I had to nod to the rest "ooishi" ( delicious ).
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No sooner I found myself part of the carnival. There were some 5 logs scheduled to be pulled down the slope. The 1st was at 10:00 Hrs then the second at 12 noon and the third one to which I clung myself was between 13:30-14:00 Hrs. I never even dreamt of being part of the ceremony when all I intended was just to witness it. I was elated but terrified when informed that already 2 people have died that year when the log slipped over them. The mood of the event was more like the rathyatras back in India. At around 12 we broke for lunch and then finally with all the vigor I set myself for the climax. The very sight from the pinnacle, scared me to death.
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When we started to descend the slope, I slipped twice but managed to hold on. What amazed me was a 80 year old man amuzing himself . When ever I wondered what will happens if this rope breaks apart, I reminded myself of the Fevicol Ad. Some of them who could nolong stand the ordeal took the least path of resistance. Finally when I reached the plane it was a relief. By then the log has just come to the edge of the slope, priests offered prayers and consecrated the whole path. Once the goahead was given, there was a huge uproar. They signed a red alert and adjusted the path of the log and started again. The sight was just awesome. As the log started its descent many of them rolled to safety while the brave souls were riding the log.
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Once the log reached the plane, many ran in and climbed on the log. The scene was no less than world cup soccer final match. We walked down to the station and on the way we came across logs that were all set to be errected. It was 5:00PM when I reached home , turned on the television and the event was live, the last of the logs coming down. I was pleased to know that it was a relatively safe day for the event. The event left such a lasting impact that I just love to be there to witness it in 2010.
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