Events:
Cherry Blossom Forecast 2024
https://www.japan-guide.com/sakura/
https://weathernews.jp/sakura/ (Japanese version only)  
https://tenki.jp/sakura/expectation/ (Japanese version only)
https://www.otenki.jp/sp/art/sakura/ (Japanese version only)

when and where to see cherry blossoms (Japanese version only):
https://hanami.walkerplus.com/
https://sp.jorudan.co.jp/hanami/
https://www.jalan.net/theme/sakura/

Sunday, September 19, 2010

two festivals

The Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri (岸和田だんじり祭) is a festival held on September 18th and 19th in Kishiwada, Osaka. Danjiri is a float with tow ropes.

Floats are drawn through the narrow streets at terrific speed by fearless men. The highlight of the festival is the move called yarimawashi. The floats make right-angled turns at street corners without slowing down. The floats sometimes collide with each other or buildings, so the parts of buildings that the floats might strike hard against are protected with padding.

The annual festival of Shiba Daijingu shrine(芝大神宮) is held in Minato Ward of Tokyo from September 11th to 21st.  It's also called Daradara-matsuri because the festival drags on for 11 days.
The festival features the Ginger Fair. It is said that the ginger here prevents people from catching a cold. In the Edo Period, many one-eyed vendors sold ginger because a one-eyed old vendor achieved large sales.

Hitotsume-kozou (一つ目小僧, one-eyed boy) are youkai (literally demon, spirit, or monster) that appears in Japanese folklore.  He has a humorous image, but it is thought that some ancient gods came down to be one-eyed monsters.

Some said that a sacrificed person's one eye was put out to keep them from escaping and the sacrificed person was thought to accompany the god, so they came to be deified.
Some said that many smithies of an early date lost sight in one eye because they looked into a furnace with one eye, so the god of smithery was thought to be blind in one eye.

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