Yaks posing for a photo at the Sanja-Matsuri in Asakusa.
I’m going to Greece for a vacation, so this will be the last post until about Aug. 1.
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Posted by Ed | Last updated Jul 31, 2017 | Fashion, Festivals, Tokyo and the Kanto Region, Traditional Japan | 4 |
Yaks posing for a photo at the Sanja-Matsuri in Asakusa.
I’m going to Greece for a vacation, so this will be the last post until about Aug. 1.
Long-time resident in Japan (since 1993) but originally from Canada. Has written guidebook chapters, magazine articles, tons of blog entries and even a book about less-known aspects of Japan. In his free time, he loves photography, cycling, and exploring interesting and obscure places around the Kansai area.
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What is a Sanja-Matsuri? It seems like the gentleman front and center is a bit out of uniform with the collared shirt and vest!
http://www.chickenmonkeydog.com
So, is that like a Japanese Mafia family reunion? Is being a member of the Yakusa not something to keep on the down low?
To Conall:
Sanja Matsuri is on of Tokyo’s three biggest festivals. Portable shrines called Mikoshi are carried around the neighborhood to bless the local shops and homes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanja_Matsuri
The guy in the front of the picture is the Oyabun, the gang’s boss.
To Liam:
You can often see Yakuza at Japanese festivals. Traditionally, they’ve been very open about their identities, and their punch perms and full-body tattoos make them easy to identify. I was quite surprised to find a magazine about yakuza that listed the addresses of all their headquarters, and I had a friend in Sapporo who had a business card that was given to her by a yakuza. They also used to wear pins with their gang’s crest on them the same way that salary men wear company pins on their suits.
Due to crackdowns by the government, many gangs have been going underground, have stopped cutting off their pinkies, wear more normal clothes and abandoning their punch perms, but some, like the ones in this picture are still very open.