Today’s Japan Photo: Kanto Festival 竿灯まつり
For Today’s Japan photo, we will visit one of the interesting festival called Kanto Festival 竿灯まつり which is held annually in Akita prefecture between 3 Aug till 6 Aug.
This photo was taken off Japan-Web-Magazine. As you can see, beautiful huge lanterns are hung on really tall bamboos while performers balance the bamboo pole on different parts of their body.
Here’s a little more information on the Kanto Festival 竿灯まつり:
The Kanto Matsuri in the city of Akita, in the northeast of Honshu (mainland Japan), is one of the country’s biggest summer festivals. It has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
A Kanto is an array of many candle-lit lanterns hung on a bamboo frame and each one looks like a glowing ear of rice. The larger Kanto, weighing about 50 kg (110 lbs.), rise 12 m (13.2 yd.) into the air and suspend 46 lanterns. With more than 200 kantos, the number of individual lanterns is around 10,000.
Supporting these lights are 3,000 people, including performers who demonstrate their skills at balancing the kanto on their palms, foreheads, shoulders, and hips. The kanto performance depends very much on the weather. If there is no wind at all, the kanto can feel very heavy to the performer. A strong wind can cause the kanto to fall down, to the amusement of the spectators. When a kanto falls down, the air flow from the bottom of the lantern usually blows out the candle so lantern fires seldom occur.
