Yamaga Toro Matsuri

 

The 千人灯籠踊り(thousand lantern dance) is the culmination of the two day Yamaga Toro Festival…, which takes place in a smaller town around 60 km north of Kumamoto in Central Kyushu, Japan. I happened to around this year at August 15th and 16th. So what is this beautiful dance with women wearing summer kimonos and lightened lanterns on their heads all about ?…
The festival is said to have originated with an incident involving the 12th emperor, Emperor Keiko. According to legend, when the emperor’s path across a river in Kyushu was blocked by thick fog, local residents saved the day by guiding the entourage with flaming torches. Over the centuries the torches have been refined to lantern, worn on the head and these “toro” have become cultural heritage and the trademark of Yamaga, as one can easily trace walking around the city.

 

Today Yamaga is famous for these paper lantern, which are completely made out of ricepaper and weigh around 180 grams. They are sold in various designs.Prices range between 200 and 400 USD.

Of course the tourist office is especially busy on the days of the matsuri to promote these city symbol and invites to wear a toro for a moment.

 

Meanwhile the festival is in full swing, with school kids meeting, couple joining and grabbing some spicy food or beer. Of course there also is a live stage, setting some contrast to the rather traditional outfit of many locals or visitors.

Meanwhile the crowds have gathered along the main road, blocked for traffic, to watch the parade of dancing women dressed in kimonos and wearing their toros.

I firework and taiko performances, which I posted earlier finished off day one.

On August 16th preparations started early for the special event of “The dance of 100 women” at a school ground. Also me and others keen to take some photos gathered already in the early afternoon to get a good spot for the evening event.

 

The perfomances started with a parade of young girls entering in groups and performing to taiko music.

 

They were following by groups of young boys who had handcrafted small mikoshis (shrines) they were carrying, followed at the end by the kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto City of course also crowned with a toro.

Then we were finally coming to the highlight of the evening,the beginning the 千人灯籠踊り, the entrance of the 1000 lantern dancers, slowly filling the circle. They were carefully guided to fill ring by ring until the reached the outer limits of the set boundaries. It then was hard to distinguish between them and the spectators. The slowly danced in the dark to the rhythmic music of the taikos. Two times the lights were turned to deep blue, illuminating the whole ring and making the dancers indistinguishable. The following pictures can hardly capture the atmosphere of the huge gathering.