{"id":3359,"date":"2018-11-10T16:21:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T07:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/history-here.com?page_id=3359"},"modified":"2019-02-28T00:57:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T15:57:21","slug":"bonden-festival","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/stories\/bonden-festival","title":{"rendered":"Bonden Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bonden festival of Taiheizan-Miyoshi shrine (Akanuma, Hiro-omote, Akita City) starts on the morning of January 17 when the coldest season hits the area. It was originally a festival for men who have come of age.
\nDozens of young men in hanten (a Japanese kimono-like coat) gather in each area of the town and parade through the town to the shrine. The party blows a conch shell and brandishes a \u201cbonden\u201d stick while singing \u201cMiyoshi-bushi\u201d[CLICK to Listen]<\/a>. With strong shouts of \u201cWatasha Oidara-Miyoshi-no-kodomo, Hito-ni-Oshimake Daikirai (I am the child of Oidara-Miyoshi god, I hate to be beaten by others),\u201d the crowd of young men surges in the shrine to be the first one to see the god.
\nWith screams and chants of \u201cJoyasa-Joyasa,\u201d the group squeezes into the shrine to dedicate the bonden stick for the year\u2019s rich harvest, business prosperity, and family safety. This event is well known as \u201cAra-bonden (fierce bonden)\u201d or \u201ckenka-bonden (bonden fight),\u201d and the bravery of this festival warms up the harsh winters of Akita.
\nBonden sticks are about three meters long, and on the top of the stick is a cylindrical basket that is decorated with a large rope and colorful pieces of cloth and paper. It is thought to be prepared as a large version of a \u201cGohei\u201d stick (the stick used as a place marker for the gods to arrive) so that the gods can easily find the group and bring them good luck.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Akita City Folk Performing Arts Heritage Center<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bonden festival of Taiheizan-Miyoshi shrine (Akanuma, Hiro-omote, Akita City) starts on the morning of January 17 when the coldest season hits the area. It was originally a festival for men who have come of age. Dozens of young men in hanten (a Japanese kimono-like coat) gather in each area of the town and parade … Continue reading Bonden Festival<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":414,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3359","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9gCtR-Sb","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3359"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5426,"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3359\/revisions\/5426"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history-here.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}