The second day of the Kitazawahachiman Festival (9/7,8 北澤八幡神社例大祭) in Tokyo’s Setagaya ward started out with fine weather but turned increasingly rainy the day wore on, eventually there was such a torrent of water from the skies that even a die hard festival fan like me had to give it up. Before that though, I took a walk through Shimokitazawa and found this omikoshi and its brave crew rushing through the streets in the rain. You can’t tell in the photos how much rain there really was, but I had to wrap a towel around my camera to keep it safe from the water. The festival had eight neighborhoods represented with about twenty omikoshi (essentially mobile sub-shrines paraded through the streets under the protection of the enshrined gods). The cool men and women in these photos belong to the the Yongomutsumi (四五睦). One day I will join one of these crews!
