Kuromatsu Fishing Port

Kuromatsu

The fishing harbor of Kuromatsu is just outside the main village in a small, adjacent cove. It is not very large but fairly typical of the thousands of small fishiung harbours found along Jaoan's almost 30,000 kilometers of coastline.

Now "protected" by huge, concrete seawalls, there is actually less concrete than found at many.

I suspect the tiny boats on the beach are used to put out small nets, drop off pots, and maybe harvest shellfish and seaweed. The half a dozen larger boats are squid boats.

The very powerful lights are used to trick the squid into thinking its a full moon and time to head to the surface for mating.

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A Walk Along the Japan Sea Coast Kuromatsu

In  the wake of the typhoon that had passed by a few days ago the sea was still far more active than normal and as I approached Kuromatsu it seemed somewhat bleaker than usual.

A far cry from the white beaches and calm, turquoise sea that Kuromatsu is known for in the summer.

For me Kuromatsu is associated with one of my favorite festivals, the summer festival, when boats travel out to the small island offshore to bring the goddess to the land. A couple of posts on thos matsuri are here and here.

A typhoon always brings out the surfers..... the waves may not look like much to someone from California or Hawaii, but people travel a long way for them here in Shimane.

Three small rivers/streams empty into the sea in Kuromatsu, though two disappear into the sand of the beach.

On my first ever visit to Kuromatsu I discovered a memorial to the 47th Ronin, the one who didn't comitt ritual suicide in one of the most well known Japanese legends..... but that deserves a post of its own

Kuromatsu Matsuri part 2

This is a continuation of an earlier post. The flotilla of boats carrying the mikoshi headed out to the island to pick up the goddess............

 

Nothing much will happen on land for a few hours and we were lucky enough to be invited in to a party......

Once the sun had gone down the lanterns on the beach were lit.....

Eventually the boats came back, and did three circuits of the torii on the little islet just off shore...

Three of the small boats in the conoy were lit in the shape of kanji.....

 

The musicians on the boat carrying the mikoshi and priest keeps up the incessant rhythmn and now the musicians on the beach join in.....

 

Once the boats make it back to land the mikoshi is carried to the beach. First the children carry their mikoshi out of the sacred matsuri area to the local shrine....

later the men start to carry the much heavier mikoshi....... but they never get off the beach..... they go forward, start to stagger from side to side, stop, back up, and try again...... this goes on till the early hours of the morning....

Kuromatsu Matsuri

A couple of weekends ago was one of my favorite matsuris at Kuromatsu, a fishing village on the coast not far from here.

I usually experience the matsuri from one of the flotilla of boats that take part, so this year for a change I thought I would see it from the land.

The matsuri takes place on the beach in front of the local shrine....

Around 5 in the evening the mikoshi is brought down to the beach......

It needs to be taken out to a small uninhabited island offshore where the honden of the shrine is located so that the goddess can be transferred into it and brought back to the beach for the matsuri.....

The boat used to carry the mikoshi, priests, and musicians, is a purpose built boat just used for this annual trip.

Once all are onboard the boat joins a flotilla of fishing boats that will escort it out to the island and back....

but first all the boats do three circuits of a small outcropping of rocks a few hundred meters offshore on which have been placed 2 small pine trees with a bamboo crosspiece to for a natural torii...

Then everyone heads out to the island to pick up the goddess....

The second part of this story can be found here...

This evening's sunset

As I've mentioned before, where we live is in a narrow valley, so we rarely get to see sunsets, so when we get the chance to see one it's a little special.

Driving home today we pulled in at Kuromatsu around that time.

Summer Matsuri 2

Yesterday I posted about the civic matsuri's that are going on right now throughout Japan. The other type of matsuri going on now are the matsuri's based on local shrines. These matsuri's can occur at any time of the year, but they tend to be either in the summer, or in the Fall. Countryside villages will have their matsuri's in the Fall, after the harvest has been completed. In the summer it tends to be coastal fishing villages or river villages, and often these matsuri will involve boats.

The video and photos show secenes from one of my favorite matsuri's, the one at Kuromatsu, a fishing village not far from Gotsu. The kami, Ichikishimahime, is fetched from an offshore island back to the village by a procession of boats.

I will be posting more on this matsuri as it is interesting and unusual in several ways.

Another common type of matsuri this time of year is Houranenya. Last weekend there was one down in Masuda, and 2 weeks ago one in Gotsu Honmachi. During Houranenya the kami is taken to boats and then paraded along the river.
I general I tend to prefer the village matsuri's over the civic matsuris. They are village-based and therefore more intimate. The food is locally made and much cheaper, and outsiders tend to be treated as guests.