Autumn Festivals and Lives in Miyako, Yamada in Iwate: Sept 16-17, 2018

I made my regular visit to Iwate Prefecture. This time, I stayed in Miyako City and Yamada Town to see their autumn festivals as well as current situations.

I joined Miyako's festival in the evening of  Sept. 16.

Teams from local communities and groups of traditional paraded in the city.

A group of Minamikawame district (local community) performed Sansa-Odori dance. The members included many young people.

A carrier with a sail canvas moved around. 

A dram performance was played by a group of Yamaguchi-daiko (dram). Strong sounds spread around the streets. (See the 4th photo from the top)

another team performed a dance with big flags.

Local people as well as visitors enjoyed the festival.

I joined Yamada Town's festival the following day (Sept 17).

The portable shrines or mikoshi are carried from a shrine to another shrine in the festival. Boats are used to move them. Fish boats join the ceremony and compose a sea parade in the port. 

The mikoshi was just landed when I arrived at the port. (See also the top photo)

Various groups performed traditional arts in the town.

In addition to their regular plays, they hold special performances for specific people who make donations for them.

We asked a team of Daikagura to play a lion dance for us. (See also the 3rd photo) 

We also asked a team of Tiger Dance a performance. (See also the 2nd photo)

It was impressive that many young people joined the festivals, both as players and visitors, in Miyako and Yamada. I also felt strong ties of the people in the local communities.

It is often said that the festivals and traditional performing arts played important roles in the process of recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disasters in March 2011. I reaffirmed the idea.

In addition to the festivals, I visited Taro district in Miyako City. It was my first visit in four years. Taro is famous for its huge seawalls, which were destroyed by the tsunami disasters in 2011.

Reconstructions have been advanced. New residential areas have been developed on the hills. 

New roads, shops, a baseball stadium and other facilities have been developed in the central parts of the district.

New seawalls are being constructed.

Still there remains a question on the future developments of the district. It is similar in most quake-hit areas in Tohoku.

I experienced a cruising in the Yamada Bay. There are many cultivation rafts of oysters and scallops in the bay

A raft is about 12x4 meter large. It takes two to three years to grow oysters. (See also the 5th photo)

The rafts were all washed away in 2011, when they had tsunami disasters. Now, they have about 2,000 rafts.