The night of the Samurai

On the 3rd of February 2008, I got to be part of one coolest things I have been involved in since being here in Japan and probably in my life so far. It was the night where we got to dress up as Samurai warriors and march down the main street of Ashikaga to celebrate the the coming of Spring. It was an honour just to be involved in this ancient tradition that the people of Ashikaga have been doing for some time. To be asked to be involved was awesome in itself, as not everyone can participate. This is one of the perks that working with the city office grants us, involvement with most community events.

The coming of spring according to the old Japanese calender begins at the start of February, and is called Setsubun. So many places around Japan have Setsubun festivals to celebrate. Ashikaga, celebrates in their unique way with a procession of Japanese Samurai marching onto Benaji Temple. Even though, it was to celebrate the coming of spring, let me tell you that February is not the best month to visit Japan ... and there was nothing spring about it. February, I was told is the coldest month in Ashikaga, and I can attest to that as I had to ride through snow blizzards, rain and gale forced winds. Anyway enough of depressing February.

Arriving back into Ashikaga from Tokyo at about 12 (see previous post about Tokyo), we were greeted to a white Ashikaga, as it had been snowing the previous night and most of the morning. Fortunately, the snow had stopped and the sun had come out ... giving us hope that there would be fine weather for the nights parade. We were scheduled to meet at the BOE (Board of Education) at 4.30, an extremely early time when considering the parade did not start til about 7 or 8. I trundled out of my apartment to meet the lads, the sunny sky at this point had disappeared and been replaced with a grey dreary one and light drizzle. No, problem I said, if it stays like this, it should still be fine.

So we met up, then escorted by some of the city employees from the international section to a local pre-school around the corner. Once inside the changing area, we realised why we had to be there so early ... dressing up as a Samurai would not be as simple as slapping on some armour. If anyone has worn a proper kimono, they would know the intricate process involved in putting one on. They had a few costume fitters to help everyone in the parade and that was about 100 people, so we had to wait our turn.

This was the box with all the Samurai gear we had to put on. There's a lot of it.

Here we are waiting around for our costume fitters. The white robe was the easy part, so I got it on first. You'll also notice that Clarence and John and have little white patches on their chest. Those are the little heat packs that are meant to keep you warm once in contact with your body. We also has some stuck onto our feet, back and basically anywhere that you wanted to keep warm.

Alright, my turn to get fitted. First was the sash around the white robe.

Then, we had this cool looking MC Hammer pants.

Pants are on, and you'll notice that his strapped on some shin guards for me too. Samurai's must have kicked each other in the shins alot while fighting ... wonder if any of them feigned injury by rolling around on the ground. You'll also notice the straw sandals I was wearing. Earlier in the night, we were given the option of wearing our normal shoes or sandals. We wanted the full samurai effect and went for the sandals. Unfortunately the sandals are one size for everyone, and my toes were hanging over the front already. The other thing was that it was made out of straw, as we soon found out that it doesn't mix well with a wet ground.

These were these really cool arm armour pieces that were being strapped on.

A bit of posing with the arm armour. Notice the large slits down the side of the pants. Very hand for putting things in.

Then came the armour, pretty heavy after you've walked all night in them too. Two of my 2nd grader kids are in the background.

Then it came time for my weapons. The big sword first followed by the smaller sword, which actually didn't come out of its sheath. Almost finished!

Finally, the helmet and we were ready to go! Unfortunately, the sword was not real! Looks real but sounded wooden when clashed with another sword.

Some preliminary posing going on.

The ALT boys are done up and ready to kill some bad guys or hit the local night club!

This is Catherine in the female warrior outfit with one of the older men in a cooler outfit, obviously of a higher rank due to the size of his helmet. Notice how overjoyed he is to be participating.

Some of the others participants in cool costumes. Again, bigger flashier helmet ... more important you are.

Once we were all dressed, we got into our horses headed for the battlegrounds. There's no smoking on this horse!

We figured out that we were some sort of flag bearer in the parade and these flags would be attached to out backs. So if we ever got lost, we could find each other easily. Also in war times, flag bearers were probably one of the first soldiers to die in battle ... sucks! I am also led to believe that the symbol on these flags, represents the Ashikaga Shogun tribe of the time.

John, getting his game face on ... ready to scare children, women and old people!

I had neglected to tell you that after about 2hrs of dressing, the light drizzle outside had now turned into a shower and getting heavier. We were bussed to a meeting point on the main road. Due to the rain, we were forced to wear garbage bags over ourselves, which sort of took away from the fierce attitude we were displaying as samurai. Due to the heavy rain, sandals were now totally wet and drenched even before the parade started. The heat packs in our socks must have stopped working after becoming waterlogged. Despite the freezing conditions, we soldiered on and went on our parade. We couldn't let our fans down.

The lady warriors marching. The while spots on the picture are ... yes, it was also snowing, as if it wasn't cold enough. We were told that this was the first time that it has ever snowed during the Yoroi Yoroi parade (Samurai parade).

The older dudes posing for some pics!

While marching, we all had to be in a strict order and that couldn't be messed up as there is one point where they announce your name and pose at a photo point. My principle was there to snap some pictures of me.

Mike and John trying to look BADASSSSS!

Wahhh! did I scare you!

This dude even got to have a gun ... no fair!

We were routinely stopped by the locals, who had braved the weather, to have pictures taken.

With barely any feeling left in my feet and contemplating weather I would have to have them amputated, we finally arrived at Benaji Temple. Once we were all lined up on the steps of the temple, we were given boxes of soy beans to throw at the adoring crowd. It is said that if you catch and eat the beans, then it will bring you luck in the coming year and cast away any demons! So many people used whatever they had to catch them, including, plastic bags, hats, umbrellas turned upside down. Kid's also got to dress up and there's a group of them to the left of the picture.

This is what the soy beans looked like that we threw at the crowd.

Lots of photos takers, news crews, paper crews. John was standing in front of a news crew, so he kept throwing the beans into their camera. Just looked for the flags, if you can't see me.

Here's a closer view where you might be able to see me.

After the throwing of the beans, we all marched to the back of the temple to a bonfire and started chanting and raising our swords. And then it was over.

We hung around a bit to sign autographs and do TV interviews. This was my big moment in the sun, I was going to make it on Japanese TV ... try not to mess up my lines. In essence they just asked me what I thought of the parade and I answered in English that it was a lot of fun. And then in Japanese ... "tanoshikatta desu". We were all asked the same question. One funny moment was when they asked him what he though of the parade. For some reason, he thought they were asking him where he was from, he looked straight down the camera and yelled "America" ... needless to say, we all laughed pretty hard. We got a copy of the news reel on NHK, but only Mike got on. However, there was one of all of us raising our swords. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to put the clip on the blog.

One final hurrah, raising our swords in unison for the camera and then, it was truly over.

All the participants were then invited to have a meal in one of the old houses at Benaji temple. So we had sticky rice, some tenpura, soup, little fishies, seaweed and some root vegies.

The samurai after a long nights work! Kampai!

We also got a souvenir arrow to take away with us.

So ends one of the greatest experiences in my life and I doubt that I will ever forget it too.