HYOGO - The Nada Fighting Festival, known for its spectacular collisions between massive portable shrines weighing around two tons, drew large crowds to Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, on October 15, as participants repeatedly slammed the heavy structures into one another in a traditional ritual believed to please the gods.
The festival is the annual autumn celebration of Matsubara Hachiman Shrine in the Shirahama district of Himeji. It is popularly known as the Nada Fighting Festival because of its fierce and energetic displays, which have become a distinctive feature of the local tradition.
The main festival day on October 15 featured the highlight of the celebrations, a ritual known as "mikoshi-awase," in which three portable shrines carried by local parishioners are repeatedly brought together in powerful collisions.
According to tradition, the more forcefully the shrines collide, the more pleased the gods are believed to be. Encouraged by thunderous chants and shouts from fellow participants, men dressed in traditional loincloths hoisted the enormous shrines high into the air before driving them into one another with considerable force.
Each collision produced a deafening crash as the shrines, weighing approximately two tons, struck one another and sometimes toppled over.
The dramatic spectacle prompted loud applause and cheers from the crowds of spectators who had gathered to witness one of the region's most vigorous traditional autumn festivals.
Source: YOMIURI
