OTATEYAMA FESTIVAL
- José Carlos Gómez Delgado
- Feb 5, 2016
- 2 min read
I mentioned several times how much Japanese people like festivals. There are thousands of them scattered throughout the different regions and different seasons. However, it seems that is not enough and occasionally some new one is invented. It is the case of this Otateyama ( "Great Mountain" in Japanese) Matsuri, held this year for the first time.
The festival took place from January 29 to February 2 in the courtyard of the Imperial Palace of Nara. The purpose of the festival is to pray for a great year, full of good health and prosperity. In front of the main palace building four large floats are placed with four seven-meter sculpture representing the Guardian Gods of the cardinal points (Komon-ten, in the east; Zocho-ten in the south; Jikoku-ten, in the west; and Tamon-ten in the north)
At the same time, some small floats are pulled by young people who dance and sing in front of them, to pay their respects and make their petitions in front of the building of the Imperial Palace. It is particularly spectacular to see the twists of the floats, for which can only be pushed.
As the food is something inherent in any festival, in this case the stalls sell typical dishes from different regions of the prefecture of Nara, advertised with banners in front of each stall.
There are also performances and events about traditions of different parts of the prefecture, such as the famous story of Princess Kaguya.
The festival begins shortly before sunset, because it is focused on using flashlights and torches, lanterns on the floats and the bright design of the sculptures of the four spectacular own gods.
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