Kanto festival

Kanto festival was held from Aug 3th~6th in Akita city. This festival is held in the night. In the daytime, the competition is held like this picture. Performers, only men, put 'Kanto'(竿燈) on the forehead, palm, hip and shoulder. They DON'T GRAB the pole.


Kanto weighs 50kg and represents of the rice. Akita is famous for the rice. Therefore, this festival is held for praying that we can harvest the rice in fall.

About 200 group joined this festival. There are various teams like school teams, companies and neighbor communites. For example, my university joins Kanto festival every year. My junior in my high school performs Kanto as a member of the group which consists of his neighbors.












They perform with the sound of Japanese flutes, drums.


















If it's windy, it's really hard to perform. Somtimes, rather, often, Kanto fall down toward audience. People who have never seen Kanto festival shouted and screamed when Kanto almost fell down.

…almost? no. Today, Kanto exactly fell down to me. Everyone except me run away to escape from falling Kanto. When Kanto was coming toward me, I was wondering if I should take pictures or movies..lol

I realized that I was between lanterns after Kanto fell down. If the pole hit me, I would get injured.....hoho~~





















In the night, they light lanterns. They look really nice.
You can check what Kanto is like in detail→http://www.kantou.gr.jp/english/index.htm

At last, here is the movie.