Placing on a matsuri isn’t simple. And if there’s one factor that conventional Japanese festivals require, it’s scores of younger individuals — a useful resource sorely in decline within the Japanese countryside.
“An absence of individuals is an important drawback we’re dealing with,” says Ryohei Teraji, chairperson of the Takayama Matsuri Yatai Preservation Affiliation, one of many teams behind the Takayama Competition held in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. “It doesn’t matter what, we’ll don’t have any selection however to scale back the size of our pageant.”
“We had been at all times a small village,” says Masaru Kose, a consultant of the onsen (sizzling spring) inn Katsuragi no Sato situated in northwest Gifu and one of many organizers of Fukuji Onsen Summer season Competition. “The dancers for our henbetei (lion dance) are inevitably getting older. It’s changing into extremely tough to go on our traditions to the following technology.”
