The Yokote Okuribon Festival (横手の送り盆まつり）is held every year on August 16th from around 6:30pm. While its origin lies in the tragic famines that struck during the Edo period, the atmosphere is anything but subdued. There’s electricity in the air and just being there is exciting, even if you’re just watching! It is dangerous for the participants – in the last 20 years there have been two deaths, people that were crushed under the 750kg yakatabune boats. (They place flowers and offerings where they died before the festival starts every year.) There’s also a fireworks display at the end!
Special thanks to Pete Leong of Pete Leong Photography – a recent addition to the community up here in Iwate. He does great work promoting Shizukuishi and takes great photos, and helped me with some of the video footage for this video. Find him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/peteleongphotography/
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23 Comments
What a fascinating festival, and with such high spirits! Also, funny butterfly 😄
Great video! Japanese festivals are so interesting, glad to see they’re starting back up again!
Washoi Washoi!
Noticed noone is wearing a mask is this just for the festival? Here in Osaka I hardly ever see people without them.
Danke!
Love these festivals and that's in big part why I'm grateful for your channel Quinlan 🙏 👍Thank you and keep up the great work my friend.
What a great festival! Thank you for sharing this with us. Those “boats” look like they represent a lot of time and hard work to craft each year. Really impressive!
I love seeing you highlighting all these festivals.
In general, the people of Tohoku are regarded as more humble/reserved but I love how their festivals tend to be the epic or wild ones.
I really love the passion that these guys put into the collisions! Especially the fact that they are trying to impress their relatives in the afterlife. The hard work and time spent building these boats sends Obon off in a special and symbolic way. Thanks for sharing!
Would love to see that in person very nice Video
The front boat guy on the right, he’s giving me big sokka vibes! 🤣
I wanna go to ALL festivals while I am there, which will hopefully be next spring-ish!
I mean If japan opens back up for unguided visits by then… Unless you Quinlan are my guide, I would rather visit festivals, samurai compounds, onsen, plus the beautiful volcanic ridges and valleys in between without a keeper. 😅 but I’m definitely going north so if I don’t hire you I’ll at least hopefully see you on the trails 😊
Very interesting festival, I wish I could be there at least once in my life.
We had a ton of fun despite the weather. It was really cool to be able to see the action up that close and not be crammed amongst 1000’s of people. Cheers mate!
wonderful video! the little butterfly friend was a nice touch! lol 🙂
"Well, that was bizarre." sums it up pretty accurately 😄
Wild and dangerous indeed, Quinlan! Thanks for introducing Pete!
The whistling drove me crazy
That is awesome! Thanks for showing and documenting this!
Also seems dangerous you wouldn't want to fall under one of those things.
Wow, great festival and footage!
Thank you so much for taking us with you!
I have a question, you mentioned in the video that there are 13 yakatabune boats. Who is in the "teams" for each boat – are the boats from different villages around the are, or from Tempels, or families, or activity clubs?
There are so many people participating, it is really fascinating to see their dedication and passion 😊
Fantastic video that captured something of the magic of a fantastic matsuri. These festivals really are a full-on sensory experience aren't they! I love how the passion and celebration overcame the wet weather too. Big respect for the drummers and musicians too for presumably playing for quite an extended period of time. Glad you had a great time and thank you for sharing it with us.
Q dawg in da house ! Festival style baby !
I wonder how crowded it is for us peasants. 🙂 I also wonder about the Daisen fireworks festival. That must be crowded if it's so big.