The night time of Inuyama festival at the second day

I'd like to write this blog for second day of Inuyama festival, especially night time. Because of the night, we could see the night float called Yoyama and they were so beautiful and fantastic!
I already wrote about windup dolls called Karakuri Ningyo and cherry blossoms, and this blog is the final article for the festival.

So please enjoy Inuyama festival with my pictures!



At evening, every float called Yoyama started to move with 365 lanterns!
I took this picture when the float was starting to move, and we can find the other float behind it on this picture!




Every float were going to Haritsuna shrine. There were a lot of Japanese lantern in front of houses on the way to the shrine and they made the special atmosphere. I think it might be the day that I saw the biggest numbers of lanterns in my life.




There were some children playing their musical accompaniment on night floats, so we could also enjoy them. And I was surprised for me, because of they could continue playing when the float was controlled in very special wild and powerful handlings called Shagiri or Donden-Gaeshi. Shagiri is the one of the way controlling the floats to make a right or left - angled turn, and the time the floats make the big noise "Guwa ga ga ga ga....." When we saw the turning, I got so strong impression by the noises and the floats! Basically, the floats don't have any functions to turn, so the turning ways just depend on power of people and it's the reason making the big noise. But, Donden-Gaeshi was more! At that time, they make right or left - angle turn on two back wheels and they advance with only two wheels! Can you guess the weight of the float? It's three-ton, and it looks so heavy right?




After darker and darker, the lights of lantern was going to be fantastic.... Every lantern lighted by a candle, so the lantern sometimes burst into flames. When I found any fires on the lanterns, I concerned about it even if every float has a fire extinguisher.




This is a picture of the float going forward on the approach to Haritsuna shrine. On the approach, there were a lot of street stalls.




In front of the Haritsuna shrine, there were some night floats! The left float looked like ship, right? And it was one of the unique floats at the festival.




And I took this picture when every float gathered around the Haritsuna shrine. We could see only 6 floats of total 13 floats the nighttime. But, the day was a special day, because of the night was the first time that floats gathered in front of the shrine night time even if the festival has the 373 times history.




Of cause, it was possible to see the floats very near at hand. The orange lights were so beautiful!


30 minutes might have passed since the floats gathered, the floats started to go back.
When the floats were making right-angle turn to forward on the approach, they tried Donden-Gaeshi. Usually the floats leaned to the back at an angle of 20° when they tried. So, I worried the floats to fall down.

After the turns, they keep to forward with only two wheels by the just poles as leverage to control it. And their records of forwarding distance should depend on the spirits! The best spirited float could forward for 30 meters, on the other hands the shortest record was only few meters.

The Donden-Gaeshi is exactly one of the highlights to show their manliness! When I seeing the Donden-Gaeshi, a girl said "Japanese festival would depend on men" to herself. I agreed her opinion.




The floats on this picture were going back on the approach. So this is the final picture of the festival!



Could you enjoy Japanese festival on my blogs? This time, I understood the difference between Japanese festival and North American festival. In North America, we can enjoy several cultures, for example Greek, Chinese, Mexican and so on cultures in their festivals. But Japanese festivals depend on their local histories. So the Inuyama festival also depends on their history of Inuyama.


Inuyama City in Aichi