Japan Honours River Gods by Festival

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 487, 17 October 1928, Page 17

Japan Honours River Gods by Festival

Family Parties Watch Happy Celebrations BRILLIANT FIREWORKS The Ginza, Tokyo's Great White Way, is thronged with gay kimouoed pleasure eekers. They pour down the Ginza in a kaleido--~opie stream, to board street car or ricksh-.w, bound fur the open spaces and cool breezes of the Sumida River. e crowds stream toward Ryogoku Bridge for the ceremony of the opening of ‘he river to .jteasure craft, and to celebrate the festival the honourable river god. On this night the otherwise deserted shrine- at Suijin-no rnori, on the upper reaches of the Su mida River, is al: with throngs oi worshippt w' pay heir homage to the river god. The “Kawa Biraki” ceremony has been celebrated annu lly since the eighteenth century, the time of the Tokugawa shoguns, the feudal overlords and military rulers of Japan, whose tombs at Tokyo and Nlkko are marvels of gorgeous scarlet and gold lacquer, carving and gilding (says the New York “Times”). Crowds at the River The streets leading to the river are thronged and jammed with people. On the broad stone Ryogoku Bridge small brown policemen in blue uniforms, shiny clanking swords, and white cotton gloves, strive vainly to direct the pushing, milling, yet strangely orderly and good-natured crowd. In the middle of the Sumida are anchored several large flat-bottomed junks, from which the fireworks display will be set off, with a gorgeous display of set figures in elaborate tableaus, bursting sky-rockets discharging lighted stars multi-coloured flowers, balls and red, green, and orange flares. For a mile up and Jown the stream e rivei is -ove. with pleasure craft of all descriptions. There are l..rge can 'pied houseboats holding a whole party, steam launches and wooden boats propelled by the yuloh, the long single oar worked from side 1 side irorn a r >wlock in ihe stein The steam launches puff busily about, sounding their whistles; sirens shriek; boatmen yell, the sound of music and shouts of laughter are heard all round, and a spirit of revelry prevails. The fussy little police launches dart about importantly, trying to keep order in the motley throng of craft. The boats are decorated with festoons of brightly coloured paper lanterns, branches of artificial flowers, and paper streamers. They look like a brilliant swarm of fireflies as they dart about the black, mysterious surface of the river. A Family Affair The festival of the river god is es sentially a fam”y a 'air. Whole fanv tly parties hire a boat for the evening, from which to watch the fireworks, or buy a ticket for one yen entitling tl m to a place in one of the big houseboats. Some prefer to engage a seat or. the ba’cony of one of thf tea houes, paying a yen or two entrance fee, and afterwards dining there. Through the often windows of the tea houses floats the gay laughter of the liners; the sound of “samisen” and “koto,” and the singing of geisha girls, while t impses of silkeuclad geishas are caught every now and then as they wave fans and long sleeves gracefully to and fro in the postures of the classic dance. The myriad coloured lights deflected n the still, dark surface of the river make an enchanting, fairylike spectacle, a dazzling feast of light and ■ "lour. Gradually the illuminations die down, the firtsworks send up their last brilliant comets of fire, the myriad festoons of lanterns are dimmed. Wearily the great throngs make their way back over the crowded Ry tgoku Bridge, to board street car or rick shaw down the Ginza for home, the s nffling of their wooden “geta ’ sounding like tho clatter of me clogs on the cobblestones of Europe.