It’s time to finally wrap up this series on the Takeda Shingen Festival I went to in Kofu last month. I’ll probably share some more photos from my day in Kofu later, but not in the near future.

I waited around with many other people for about an hour for the promised fireworks. They were to be fired off from the top of the castle site. Very cool I thought. However, the firework show lasted less than 1 minute. I kid you not. I’ve witnessed longer fireworks after home runs at baseball games.

The wait could have been worse were it not for all of the typical Japanese festival food available. What would you like? Yakisoba? Ramen? Takoyaki? Kakigori? Okonomiyaki? Udon? Yakitori?

Posted on May 6th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: festivals, fireworks, food, kofu, matsuri, night photography. Comments: None

In English, one would probably call this a parade. In Japanese 軍団出陣 implies the soldiers are heading to the front lines of battle, and such is the nature of the Takeda Shingen Parade. The loudspeaker calls out which regiment is summoned to the front lines as dramatic music plays through the streets.

You may remember the guy on horseback in the top photo from this earlier picture.

If it weren’t for the thousands of people in modern dress watching, and the retail outlets surrounding the scene, your imagination could take you back a few hundred years to the actual events. The Shingen Ko Matsuri (Takeda Shingen Festival or 信玄公祭り) is your next best thing to a time machine.

Posted on May 5th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: kofu, people. Comments: None

As previously mentioned, I wanted to see Kofu’s shopping district I was so familiar with in the late 1980s. I was hoping it hadn’t changed.

While the streets are still there, most of the buildings have been rebuilt in the past 22 years; several were even being renovated or reconstructed the day I was there. The businesses have nearly all changed.

The top picture is of Kofu’s covered shopping arcade (甲府銀座). I only recognized a couple of the shops. The roof has been replaced. I think it used to be green. Some businesses had signs boasting how long they had been there like “Established 1996″ or “Serving you since 1991.” To me they were almost all brand new. I still felt nostalgic. I continue to wear a hanten (袢纏) around the house back in the states in the winter that I purchased on this street.

Exiting the west part of Kofu’s Ginza puts one on Orion Street (オリオン通り). The ancient memory that sticks out the most for me on Orion Street was getting sick one day, running into a business on this street, and using my first Japanese squatter. They were common back then. I haven’t used one yet this go around (which has now passed the 8 month point) in Japan (although I had to use them every day in China last month).

Orion Street hasn’t remained the same either. The above sign notes that Orion Street is lit for the 21st Century so I’m guessing it received a major makeover in 1999.

Finally, there was good old Heiwa Doori (平和通り). I couldn’t get a good feel for it as the sidewalks were so packed with people ready for the Takeda Shingen Festival Parade to begin. I did notice that my favorite Mister Donut shop is now a Starbucks. Ugh.

Posted on April 30th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: kofu, signs. Comments: 1

After hanging out at the Kofu Castle for a while, I wanted to check out the parts of Kofu I was most familiar with 22 years ago–the shopping streets–before the main part of the Takeda Shingen Festival got under way. I couldn’t get far as a dance performance blocked an entire street through the Kofu shopping district.

Takeda Shingen’s motto was “Move as swift as wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, and have an undefeatable defense like a mountain.” The abbreviated characters for this slogan are read merely as furinkazan (風林火山). At the festival six generals represented each of the four, for a total of 24 generals. The dancers also represented one of the four. Those in blue represented swift wind, green represented forest, red represented fire, and purple represented mountains.

The top picture in today’s entry must have been some mountain dancers. Some forest dancers are below. The best view was from the end of the street, pictured above. The dancers appeared like colorful waves from this vantage point. I should have taken a video for the full effect.

Posted on April 27th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: kofu, people. Comments: 1

The setting for my first picture in this series was the grounds of Maizuru Castle Park. Shingen’s troops gathered here before heading off in their regiments for the “parade.” The atmosphere was very good. The weather was fine, Mt. Fuji loomed in the background, and the samurai were getting drunk before heading off to battle (the pavement of Kofu’s streets).

The Japanese guy above was enjoying the mood as well. I was merely taking an incognito picture of his group when he spotted me and performed this “charge.” It was actually more of a pose than a charge, but I appreciated his willingness to provide a nice action shot for my camera without actually impaling me.

Let’s not forget this was a festival and not a battle reenactment. Therefore, there was plenty of yakisoba, takoyaki, and the like to be had, as well as monkeys doing tricks and other matsuri standards.

The guy in the middle of this group, with the tall helmet, is the president of his company and represented one of Takeda Shingen’s generals on horseback later in the evening. I chatted with him for a while earlier and had my picture taken with him. Photos of people like me in regular clothes with those of Japanese in samurai gear don’t look right though.

As each of the 24 regiments left the castle grounds they gave a battle shout like the one you can see in the above video I took. Some groups were more serious than others. Applause at the end seemed a little… wrong.

Posted on April 25th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: castle, festivals, kofu, people, video. Comments: None