"Creepy" Traditional Dances

Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture:

Last weekend, we set out to Korasan, the local mountain that we sometimes walk up on weekends for some exercise. Usually the destination is the Shrine at the top, appropriately called Kora Taisha. This time our objective was the Ajisai Matsuri. Hydrangeas are blooming during the rainy season in Japan. They're a welcome colorful and cheery contrast to the gloomy weather.

For a few years we've seen banners and notices about Ajisai Matsuri. On the mountain, there's a hydrangea garden (Ajisai-en) that we stop by on the way up, in the right season. I've described a couple things at Korasan here before, including the trees that are 'holding hands,' the shrine, and the nice walk in general. 

This year work schedules and weather allowed for us to go to the one day Ajisai Festival, which takes place on a Sunday in early June each year. I thought we would just walk around the hydrangea garden and have a look around the festival, around halfway up the mountain, then go home.

Unfortunately it was a little early for hydrangeas, or they were just small this year again due to low rainfall. The festival was still ahead and it was a really typical tiny small town festival. Activities included a somen slide experience which I have never tried. It looks like it's really only fun for kids. Almost all participants were preschoolers, waiting with their wari-bashi, snatching up canned mikan and cherries mixed in with the noodles. 

It was all sort of gross looking considering it was a bunch of kids sharing germs, but they looked like they were having fun.

We didn't stay at the festival for very long, but there was also some entertainment. When we arrived, a hula dance routine was just ending. Next was fifteen minutes of what I refer to as the creepy dance. (If you know what this dance is really called, feel free to comment.) First of all, I'm sort of scared of clowns and dolls already, so these masks were scary to me. Second, the last o-ji-chan was dancing in a sort of inappropriate way.

I don't know what this dance is called, but there was a procession of costumed and masked characters, including what I'm guessing was a kitsune leading and kappa at the end of the line. The other faces were maybe an octopus and creepy looking people. Our city mascot, Kuruppa, was also in attendance. The music was a traditional repetitive march with percussion and flute.

The ten or so dancers came out and in a slow motion konga line did the same dance, but all in their own unique styles. They weaved around the crowd and sometimes interacted with viewers a little. Especially that last O-chan who was popular with the little boys. I didn't think he should be teaching the boys the type of moves he was adding into the dance as he was hamming it up at the end of the line. I guess when you're wearing a mask, no one knows who you are, so you can take that as an excuse to act crazy?

When a kappa came close to me as a type of interacting, it only scared me. Later I wondered if the masked dancer recognized me.

I don't know why we even stayed and watched the whole thing honestly, other than to wait for the dancers to get out of the path back to the trail. A band was setting up to play next, but we headed up to the shrine because we were done more quickly than we expected.

I don't know that I'd make an effort to go for the festival in the future, but wen they are actually blooming well, the hydrangeas in the garden there are worth the trip.