In the land of the amphibian, a fifty-pound salamander is king.
Many hundreds of kilometers west of Tokyo, in the mountains of Okayama prefecture, lies a tiny river valley where the Japanese giant salamander is venerated as a god. Every year for close to half a century now, the village of Yubara Onsen has held the Hanzaki Festival to honor this most local of deities.
Watching a gentle mist roll over the river that runs through the valley, it's easy to understand how villagers came to deify the reclusive amphibians that populate its waters. But the creatures known as oo-sanshouo (大山椒魚 ・オオサンショウウオ) aren't mythical beings or yokai. They're real animals that live in alpine rivers and streams in Western Japan, where under ideal conditions they can grow to five feet in length and live for well over a hundred years. These are seriously large salamanders. In the regional dialect of Okayama, they are called "hanzaki" (半裂・はんざき), the relic of an old (and obviously mistaken) belief that the creatures could survive, planarian-like, after being sliced into two halves. Given the isolated setting and the strange appearance of these reclusive creatures, it's easy to understand their becoming entwined with local mythology.
The procession begins at three P.M. every August 8th, when a pair of parade floats festooned with enormous representations of the giant salamanders are hauled through the streets of the village, followed by singers and dancers. There are two salamander floats: the "male," dark in color, above; and a reddish-hued "female."
Over the course of an hour or so, the floats wend their way from the local Hanzaki Center down the town's lone main street, where the tekiya peddlers have set up stalls selling kakigori shave-ice, yakisoba, "marine soda," and games of chance for the kiddies.
Finally, later that evening, after the sun goes down, comes the grand finale: the Hanzaki Song! Time to crack a Sapporo tall-boy with the locals and soak up the enka-inflected refrain echoing through the valley. Shiawase wa, hanzaki matsuri dakara... ("Happiness is the giant salamander festival!")
You're right, happiness _is_ the giant salamander festival. I feel happy just reading about it.
(Next year, I dare you to run in front of one of those floats with a Millenium Falcon toy.)
Posted by: Roger | August 12, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Very cool. Looks like a lovely place to visit.
Posted by: Gilles Poitras | August 12, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Some of those people even have jackets with a salamander-shaped 'S' on the back.
Wait, are those white kimonos with baby salamanders on them?
Posted by: thomas | August 13, 2008 at 12:35 AM
Damn, that looks fun. So jealous.
BTW, "daasonrima"?
Posted by: hillsy | August 13, 2008 at 04:52 AM
Read it backwards: MARINE SODA! (It's like melted kakigori.)
And yeah, those are indeed salamander-festooned yukata. The perfect sort of gear for a giant salamander festival. I didn't have a yukata, but I was sporting a Mont Bell oosanshouo shirt:
http://webshop.montbell.jp/goods/disp.php?product_id=2104357
Posted by: Matt Alt | August 13, 2008 at 08:31 AM
"Read it backwards: MARINE SODA!"
Hah! Didn't even notice that!
That's a kickass shirt, by the way. Gimme that over "Evisu" ANY day of the week. Just please stay away from the Crocs on that site...
Posted by: hillsy | August 13, 2008 at 12:48 PM
OK why has no one compared the float to the ALIEN QUEEN?!
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AJGJCFMEL.jpg
Posted by: Tim | August 22, 2008 at 11:12 PM