Japan: Takayama

Takayama is a small historical town a couple of hours north of where I lived in Japan. I was lucky enough to go during the Takayama festival.

On a side note: if you’re ever in Japan try your hardest to plan your trip to coincide with a traditional festival (matsuri). Especially one with a procession where decorated floats (dashi) are wheeled around town. Especially ones that are loud. Especially ones that involve worship of genitalia.

Some of these photos were taken by my travel buddies Jaime and Meggie; my darling flatmate Meggie went back with Jaime during the snow.

Old Town

Few areas in Japan have preserved historical towns; Kyoto’s Matsubara Dori comes to mind. Takayama has well preserved historical buildings now set up as museums. One museum is the Takayama Jinya, a government office. You can learn about how they lived and how they tortured and so on. Architecture and how the buildings were made is also a major feature.

As far as I know, these photos are of the Takayama Jinya.

When I visited I was obsessed with sakura: we’d just visited Kyoto in full bloom.

On the way to Hida Folk Village (we walked) were a series of souvenir shops, one with a carved tree featuring a bear on a swing (very cute):

and probably the largest Maneki Neko you’re ever likely to see:

I wonder if I bought my maneki neko from this store as the one I have is a 5 inch version of this one.

A common feature in these kinds of tourist attractions are cluttered crockery shops like this one:

Some parts of the Old Town in the snow from Meg and Jaime’s visit:

Hida Folk Village

Some of the buildings in Hida Folk Village were originally from Takayama but most have been dismantled and rebuilt there from other locations in that region of Japan. The main feature is a particular style of Japanese architecture with thick steeply sloped thatch roofs that is unique to the area. If you’re a photographer you’d probably have a field day photographing unusual angles and thick moss, but otherwise it’s all rather school-excursion.

Jaime and I next the Hida Folk Village lake which features the obligatory press of large carp:

Plows, package labels and a loom in one of the agricultural buildings:

Elements of Shinto and ancestor worship: a tree brance bound in cloth to soothe spirits (kami) and an ancestor shrine:

The famous pitched thatch roof:

Functional water wheel and obligatory swans:

Takayama Matsuri

The matsuri mostly involves these ornate floats (dashi), performers and dancing marionettes.

A highlight was this float which was performing just as we arrived. (These photos taken by Jaime). This sweet noble girl –

flipped over to reveal a dragon bum which jumped around snapping wildly:

The dragon butt girl was followed by this little fellow with a drum. He came out agonisingly slow to a high pitched ‘aaaa-aaaAH!’ chant:

I filmed him for a while, got bored, stopped. He put down his drum and backed away …

The drum exploded, showering the audience with confetti, and a demon danced in its place!

I was filming with my ridiculously low quality camera, and you can see a cut of the footage here:

Other photos of the festival:

Local kids dress in costume to guide the people and push the dashi around.

Atop the dashi are massive drums, played by locals who train for the role.

One thing I regret is leaving early: we had pre paid return tickets and our train left at 8. At the time I was anxious not to pay extra for another ticket later as Jaime insisted we do, or get stranded in Takayama. I now realise we could have probably found another way home; sorry about that Jaime!

To get an idea of the atmosphere and the noise, I’ve compiled the footage I took (very bad quality):