Matsuri

The mikoshi is a portable shinto shrine, a vehicle for the gods that inhabit a particular shrine. During the matsuri, the shrine's devotees carry the mikoshi and the gods inhabiting it around the neighborhood in a spirit of excitement and revelry. Just as the gods are set free, the people's spirits are liberated, and a kind of sacred chaos ensues.

Omikoshi brings the spirit of the Japanese people to the surface like nothing else. From the morning of the event participants drink sacred sake in celebration and reverence, working themselves into a unique fervor. The atmosphere is charged. People laugh, cry, scream and fight. The people of Tokyo are typically pretty reserved, but the matsuri brings out what is deeply buried.

Photos by Andrew Houston.

All images © Andrew Houston, 2010. All rights reserved.