I visited Tochigi City (栃木市) last weekend and
took photos of “DASHI” (山車) festival under
the autumn clear sky. I would like to share our unique culture with the world.
A “DASHI” is a festival cart with three or four wheels. Literally, "DASHI" is "mountain cart" or "mount wheel". A
dashi is similar to a parade float in other countries. People pull a dashi and parade around the
town. A dashi is decorated with beautiful fabrics and crafts, and is mounted
with dolls and arts. The doll and arts are created based upon historical
stories to convey a message of peace, mightiness, etc. So, you need to know the
background stories to understand the meaning of the dashi decorations, but I
suppose most of the people coming to the festival don’t care about the
meanings. They just enjoy!
On the dashi, elder masters and young boys
& girls play the Japanese traditional drum and the flute on a small stage
in front. The music played is called “Ohayashi”. There is no music note for the
ohayashi. An ohayashi sounds just like a simple repeated music. When people
hear ohayashi music, they will know straight away that a festival is going on
somewhere in the town.
In the photo, you will see a funny man dancing at the head of the parade. He is wearing "Hyottoko" mask, and his job is close to that of a clown.
The Tochigi Autumn Dashi Festival is held
every other year and this year it was held on November 10 and 11. The festival
dates back in 1874. One of the wealthy merchants in the town bought a dashi and
started to march as an attention-seeking way aside a shrine festival.
Tochigi City is located approx. 90km north
of Tokyo. In the city, there is a historical road where an imperial messenger once
walked from Kyoto to Nikko Toshogu Shrine where Tokugawa Ieyasu is buried. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the first samurai who established the Edo-era that last for 260 years. There
are several old houses beside the road preserved as they were in the era.
I hope you will enjoy the photos.
Thank you for visiting our blog!
