A Japanese Local Community Event With A Small Shrine in 2016

The annual Spring Festival at a tiny local shrine which I have introduced previously on the 26th in this blog was just held yesterday. Many people got together at the shrine, from not only within Hachioji city but also various places in Tokyo and they had a nice time.

The shrine is located on top of a small mountain near Mt. Takao, which is well known as a sightseeing spot in Tokyo. So the shrine was surrounded by beautiful greeneries and wild spring flowers as you can see in the photos.

Although it was not necessary many people brought food or drinks/liquors to share with just like a pot-luck party, and if you donate something to this festival, you get a small bottle of sacred Sake from the shrine in return as shown in the upper center photo. In addition, Shinto priests of the shrine prepared a hot pot and provided to those visiting the festival.

People also enjoyed performances at the festival. There were a shrine maiden's dance and several music bands playing. The music weren't traditional Japanese music, in fact they were all foreign music. People gathering there are open-minded and they don't insist on Japanese materials only.

As you can see in the lower photos music bands were playing foreign music and there were people from foreign countries enjoying the music. It might be rare to see local community's activities at a Shinto shrine can be culturally mixed. It would be an interesting feature of this shrine that is open to international communities. The lower right hand side photo shows one of the Shinto priests dancing to South American music. There was even a foreign Shinto priest. That would be the reason why many people are gathed for this tiny shrine's activities.