Ikegami Honmonji Oeshiki 2014

This year saw the 733rd Oeshiki ceremony at Tokyo’s Ikegami Honmonji Temple in the southern Ota Ward. Among the performers were the usual matoi dancers, laymen followers of the Nichiren temples who take part in the festivities by twirling their matoi around their bodies. These matoi are about 10kg heavy but the guys make it seem very easy. I especially liked these two men who did pretty fantastic two person set where they mirrored each other’s movements to great effect. The crowd was mighty pleased! Even as I was taking these I was thinking how much one of them reminded me of Johnny Depp, same stern features, the scraggly beard and the dark eyes! Very striking! I for one would be happy to see matoi dancing as an olympic sport!

As usual, please click the images for full picture quality!

Ikegami Oeshiki – This Weekend

This weekend, temples all over Japan belonging to one of the biggest Japanese buddhist sects, will be holding the grand Oeshiki, a festival to celebrate the passing of the saint Nichiren who died on October 13th, 1282. The main temple of the Nichiren sect and the biggest of the Oeshiki ceremonies is at the temple in Ikegami, in Tokyo’s southern Ota Ward. The ceremonies start today but the main event with big parade, the dancing with the matoi and the thousands of revelers is on the 12th and finishing with more ceremonies on the 13th.

If you are in Tokyo this weekend I recommend heading down to the Honmonji temple to watch the festivities! You can find more information on the event homepage here, although it is all in Japanese is has all the times, routes and maps of the ceremonies.

I took these photos right at the end of last year’s ceremony, the parishioners still had a lot of energy even though they had been dancing and playing for hours!

Ikegami Oeshiki Ceremony – Kids

One of the things I love the most about Japanese festivals is that they are so multi-generational. Everyone gets a chance to join in and there is a place for everyone regardless of age or ability. One of the most exciting festivals in Tokyo is the massive Oeshiki buddhist ceremony at the huge Honmonji in Ikegami, Ota Ward in southern Tokyo. I took these photos of kids joining in, mimicking the adults with their matoi poles and ritual dancing. The kid’s versions are obviously much smaller but they still take it very seriously. Some of the kids are taped up like pro athletes! I can imagine that the constant twisting of the matoi poles can be very hard on fingers, hands and wrists. They also use a very fine talcum powder to get a proper grip on the poles, as the evening progresses the talcum tends to get everywhere! I found when I got home that evening that I too had been covered in a grey mist of powder! Even my camera was coated in it.

One little kid in particular caught my attention, too small to take part in the dancing the kid was still participating fully even from the pram!

First Night of the Ikegami Oeshiki Ceremony – Photo Op

I thought the first night of the massive Oeshiki ceremony in Tokyo’s Ikegami district was pretty crowded, seeing as the out of town participants usually don’t show up until the second night. It turns out I was just lucky being in the right place at the right time as I caught most of the local teams as they pulled up for huge group photo on the beginning of the procession route towards the temple on top of the hill. Several teams and their leaders lined up in front of the official photographer and I sneaked right up to him, almost just below his ladder. I think the main guy in the photos were the leader of the local teams but I could be wrong. Still, they were all very photogenic!