For Today’s Japan Photo series we will be travelling to Mino city in Gifu prefecture to participate in the Mino Festival 美濃まつり, where traditional mikoshi are transformed into really colorful ones.
This photo was taken off Mainichi Japan’s Photo Journal and here’s the description:
A mikoshi, or portable shrine, decorated with pink locally made Japanese paper is hoisted on the shoulders of revelers in Mino, Gifu Prefecture during the Mino Festival on Saturday, April 10, 2010. Thirty-one “Hana Mikoshi,” or “flower shrines,” each decorated with 200-300 of the paper strands, were carried through the city. (Mainichi)
And here’s a little more information that I sourced from the internet:
The Mino Festival 美濃まつり takes place annually in Mino City, Gifu Prefecture on the second weekend of April.
On the first day, over 30 mikoshi (portable shrines) will be decorated into colourful hanamikoshi (flower floats) . The hanamikoshi are carreid to the central shrine and followed by a procession of streetside comedy with teams of amateur comedians wheeling props around in carts and performing wherever they find an audience. On the second day, there will be a parade of six gorgeous ‘Yama’ (wheeled floats) with open-air stand of wind-up dolls takes place on the following day.
