This is a story from nine years ago. I tried to research this festival to write this post, but I couldn't find anything. I've already forgotten the exact location and the name of the village. The name of the festival included the word for horse, as I vaguely recall.
Back then, I was taking a butoh dance class, and one day, our instructor brought a flyer for a festival. It was just a coarse photocopy with a grainy black and white photo printed on it. According to the flyer, the festival hadn't been held for two decades and would be revived that year, 2016. The instructor was excited, calling it the legendary festival, and invited us to attend. Being the curious person I am, I decided to go with a friend and my son.
The festival would be held in a small village, deep in the rugged mountains on the border between Toyama and Niigata prefectures. I was a novice driver then, so I didn't realize I should avoid driving in the mountains during such a snowy season. I actually almost ended up dying and taking my passengers with me. However, that's another story, which I won't get into today.
Anyway, we barely made it to the village in one piece. It was late March, I think, but the village was still covered with a thick blanket of pristine snow that appeared to be fresh. There were only forty or fifty people at the venue, and no outsiders except us. On the outside, it was devoid of all color, but inside, the venue was beautifully decorated with branches and handmade fruits of various colors. The room was square and had a Japanese-style fireplace in the center.
During the festival, men jumped around in three corners of the room like horses, avoiding the corner near the exit. They ran around the room tracing a triangle and jumped as high as they could. Our butoh instructor was clearly enjoying the opportunity to showcase his jumping skills.
Afterward, we watched a documentary film about the way of life in the village in olden days. Even today, it's quite tough to live in such a place. The population is actually decreasing there, which is why the festival couldn't survive. The film taught us the ethnographic value of the village and its festival. How eagerly the villagers, who spent half the year isolated by snow, longed for spring. The colorful decorations and energetic jumping were their expressions of longing for spring, in other words, life itself.
When the screening ended, a middle-aged man gave a speech. From his speech, I gathered that he was from a prominent family in the village and had once been the owner of the venue, but all of his family, including himself, had left the village and moved to town. He burst into tears midway through the speech, saying he was extremely happy to see the festival again. Japanese adult men rarely cry in public. I won't forget his trembling voice and tears.
As outsiders, we didn't attend the after-party and left the village. It was probably the last time they held the festival. I know it's inevitable that such festivals and villages are vanishing, but it pains me to no end that the diversity of this country is being lost.
That was excellent! Interesting as always and lots of little English lessons to learn. Great job!
Thank you, Uly! I'm glad you found it interesting. I was surprised how quickly this post came together. I feel like I'm getting faster at writing in English, and I appreciate your detailed corrections – they're a huge help!
You’re very welcome! I’m not surprised at all because you’ve been focusing on the spoken language, so, as a result, your written language has improved by leaps and bounds. That’s only natural. Remember that as children, we learned our native language without textbooks or Journaly posts; we learned how to speak first and only then did we commit our thoughts to paper. Unfortunately, language learners tend to put the cart before the horse (lesson one usually includes learning the alphabet 🥲) and in so doing, they put themselves at a disadvantage from day one. However, if, from day one, they were to just listen, understand, and repeat, without writing down a single word or trying to read for at least one year, by the time they get around to writing, what they wrote would be much more dynamic, expressive, and native.
Yeah, listen, understand, and repeat - how simple! I'm intrigued by these basic aspects of language learning. This post is a bit lengthy, but I'd like to practice this one after the Fujifabric post. I'd really appreciate it if you could record it.
Absolutely!
Thanks as always 🙌
That was a really interesting story. Thanks.
@t4up3 Thank you too! I sometimes wonder how those villagers are doing.