Arquebus 3

Nagashino battle standard festival

"Nagashino battle standard festival" started half-century and a few years ago. It might belong to the category of new ones just getting started.

We don't think this festival is famous around Japan. Neither not famous among international tourists. If someone already knows, he might be a big fan of Japanese festivals or he lives near "Nagashino" town now.



Nagashino battle standard festival

And, you need one more information. If you don't know the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, it's difficult to understand why Arquebuses are fired in this festival so many. Many fake Samurai warriors wearing armors gather in this festival site. They are who belong to several Arquebus-shooting groups and these groups play shooting-performances of Arquebuses all day long. Because this festival features the Battle of Nagashino, the battle Arquebuses played a very important role.

To say precisely, the incident drawn on "the folding screen of the Battle of Nagashino" wasn't happened here. Because this famous battle happened at the two main battle-fields. And the Nagashino castle was one of them which is the event site of this festival, however, the battle drawn on the folding screen happened at another battle-field.

Strands are everywhere

This battle separated to the former part and the later part. The former part was the siege of Nagashino castle, and the later part was the field-operations at Shitaragahara. In this field-operations, guns were used collectively never before. As a result, this tactics became very famous. However, that is another story.



Nagashino castle ruins

Now, we would like to look back over the history of Arquebuses quickly. The principle of matchlock guns was invented in China. But, practical invention was attained by some Europeans. By the description of an European historian, matchlock's anchor-hold and mobile-power weren't so superb than other traditional ordinary weapons first.

Nevertheless Europeans improved and refined their new weapon for many years. And, finally they made this new weapon assuring safe operation.
Why they put up with the inconvenience? That's because when this weapon was used, the user army troops needed less further extra practice to put into real battle field. When some army troops brought up their new arrow-soldiers, they needed a few years. By contrast, to bring up musket-soldiers, they only needed a few days!

Opening ceremony (shinshiro city HP)

On the contrary, Japanese didn't understand this most important point of using musket guns. Unexpectedly, they established new Budo named Hou-jyutsu. They chose the way of practicing new musket-soldiers in which they spent long and strict time until the completion of their study. If the battles continued, this decision was denied by the employers. However, battles were over so the decision was agreed.

Japanese couldn't improve musket's power in the technical aspect. Then they developed their weapons strangely. For example, they thickened the body to improve the power. The result showed that musket-soldiers had to bring very heavy muskets and they could not move quickly. So, some soldiers couldn't operate these weapons. As for the operations they had to practice their physical strength and used weapons with predefined actions.

Performance of Arquebuses

"Yonezawa-han Koshiki-jyu Hozonkai" is a group of the descendants of Yonezawa-han's Houjyutsu-ka, who attend this festival over half a century. Their special Arquebuses are over 20 kilograms. Furthermore, reaction force are awful as strong as the power to make shooter's shoulders broken when they don't behave correct performance.

Big size Arquebus (Shinshiro city HP)

We think these Arquebuses aren't useful for the action in the real battle field. However, their ancestors used these weapons in the very famous war named "the Siege of Osaka castle" in 1615.

Practicing of their physical performances and having great passion are behind the performance. It is very typical Japanese approach.


The venue and the festival schedule

We're sorry to do a little top-heavy explanation. Let's go to the festival place.
The main event site is Nagasino castle ruins. It's in Shinshiro-city Aichi-prefecture, same as "Shitaragahara historical museum". The traffic route is also same, you should ride 2 more stations, and you can arrive the place named "Nagashino-jo".

Running in board

The distance from the station to the event site is approximately 10 minutes by walk. You attend the festival now, then you can follow other audiences of the festival. You may reach the event site easily.

Festival schedule is below.
It's almost same every year.

The date of the festival   May 5th
Relevant events are held on May 3rd and 4th, but performances of Arquebuses are only 5th.

"Kattsen-Gyoretsu" or the parade   9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
Many attendees wear fake Samurai battle armors   

Only some votaries and local people go to see the parade, and other people wait the arrival of the parade at the event site. 

Performance of Arquebuses 1   9:30 a.m. to 10:00 am
This is the event for the people wait the starting ceremony.

We tried to visit there at the starting time of  this performance, but it's too difficult to make this timing. Because, you have to ride JR local train from Toyohashi-station to Nagashinojyo-station for approximately 1 hour. You may ride a train at Toyohashi-station around 8:30 a.m.. Accordingly, you have to leave Osaka-station very early in the morning.



Kassen-gyoretsu (Shinshiro city HP)

Ceremony   10:45 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.

Performance of Arquebuses 2   11:30 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.

Performance of Arquebuses 3   12:00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.

Performance of Japanese Archery by wearing battle armors   12:30 a.m. to 01:00 p.m.

Performance of Arquebuses 4   01:20 p.m. to 01:50 p.m.

Performance of Arquebuses 5   01:50 p.m. to 02:20 p.m.

Performance of Arquebuses 6   02:30 p.m. to 03:00 p.m.  And, Finishing of the festival

Scenes of Ceremony

Performance of Arquebuses

This festival is featuring the battle famous for the big success of Arquebuses. Therefore, almost all performances are shootings. The performances are held 6 times by next 3 groups 2 times each.

"Nihon Zensoujyu-shageki Renmei"
or Japan muzzle-laders associations committee

"Yonezawa-han Koshiki-jyu Hozonkai"
or the traditional gun-performance association of the feudal domain of Yonezawa
 
"Nagashino Shitaragahara Teppou-tai"
or the musket troops of Nagashino and Shitaragahara region

 Today's event site isn't wide enough, so musket troopers separated small groups. Whole members unison-firing weresn't practiced.

On the other hand, we had seen about 10 troopers unison-firing at another festival of Okazaki-city. Compare with it, today's festival was held at closer range than Okazaki-city's. We felt strong live feeling by tremendous gun-sound! 

Performance of archers

Between 3rd performance of shooting and 4th, archer's performance was demonstrated. Archers released arrows practically. Besides, musket-gunmen didn't fire true bullets. Taking these things into consideration, we preferred to archer's performance instead.

Furthermore, musket-gunmen seemed to use kind of modern contraptions, that hadn't existed in the Sengoku era. Even that small difference made us spoiled the fun of Arquebuses.

2 to 3 minutes were necessary for musket-gunmen to prepare the next firing, even though they used such kind of modern contraptions.

They performe wearing armors

For archers, only bows and arrows were necessary in the battle field. But, for musket-gunmen, muskets and bullets were not only necessities, they needed other many little items, for example fire starters, gunpowder cases and so on.

items necessary for gun shooting

Each item was not so difficult to handle, but if you forgot to bring, dropped, or broke them, you couldn't fire your musket. Thus, musket-gunmen sharpened these items and came up with using the skills not to fail in the battle fields. However, the idle time after the first shot to the next wasn't shortened by their innovations.

We could meet performers by chance

By contrast, less than 30 seconds were needed for archers to switch places with the first group and the second one. And also there were no idle time between the first shot and the next in their unison-releasing. The targets were soon filled with arrows. However, the distance to the target was only 20 meters. So, we supposed the conditions were a little advantageous for archers.

We could see armored people closely

The event site was an empty space where was filled with the carpet of green grass and no buildings. There were only performers and audience. Gentle breezes and mild weather made us satisfied. It was a really beautiful festival day!  　

Sight words: Okazaki city

In the previous article, we wrote about "Ieyasu-Gyoretsu" or the festival of Okazaki city. We wrote incident which happened in the festival only.

So, we would like to describe stories about "Iga-Hachimangu" shrine where the parade started and "Okazaki-jo park" where the parade finally arrived. And we also talk about several of sight words of Okazaki city.



Iga Hachimangu's entrance 

"Iga-Hachimangu" is the shrine where Tokugawa Ieyasu's ancestor of his five generations before established about 550 years ago. So, this shrine has a long and honorable history. It was chosen as the place that "Ieyasu-Gyoretsu" started.  

Ema

In this shrine, we can dedicate a "Ema" or a formal wooden block in which we write something we dream. For example, when we have very difficult problems, we ask the shrine for favors of the divine grace. And in a new year's week, we dedicate our gratitude by visiting and worshipping.

By the way, we found this diagram at this shrine. This diagram is a result of a event named "Mushateki-sinji" or "divine event by a selected warrior".

According to the home page, this event has been continuing long time from the date Tokugawa Ieyasu lived. But, its origin isn't clear. And in this event, several concerns which are done kind of horoscopes, which are agriculture, commerce and industry. More specifically, for example, rice for staple food would be abundant or not, weather throughout the year would be nice or not. These problems are especially conclusive for the people at the date. And also they couldn't overcome these problems more than now.

As a result of a horoscope using bows and arrows, they asked these problems for the deity. We suppose this is like the oracles of Apollo in ancient Greece. 

They told the fortune

In the Iga-hachimangu shrine, people divine the fortune using bows and arrows at the beginning of every year. In this event, selected warriors shoot arrows toward targets. How each arrow hits the target is important. Comparing with predetermined shapes, they do horoscopes this year's fortune of several concerns.

This year's results were shown by Chinese characters in this diagram. We suppose this event is far-fetched for our sight-words. Thus, we introduce only its outline.

Okazaki-jo park

Then, we headed to "Okazaki-jo park" next. This park was the Okazaki castle once. However, its compound was completely changed at some stage in the past.

Original Okazaki castle was rebuilt on a large scale at the period of after the Battle of Sekigahara. It was made like a hira-jiro or a castle on a plain, and it was surrounded by many moats at that time. 

However, most of moats were disappeared now. Furthermore, it was located at a connecting point of two big rivers at that time, but the point was moved and the size of the rivers was changed in the past. So, we can't find the original compounds, ramparts, walls, and turrets now. Almost all were renovated not referring to the originals. There are a building like the main castle tower and several stone walls, however, this Okazaki-jo park isn't a castle any more.

After a short time at the beginning of the Meiji era, "Han" or the regional feudal government was denied. After "Han", "Ken" or the prefectural government was made. This new prefectural government was controlled by the central government. And the central government disliked existence of the fortresses. And ordered the destruction of all castles.

Most of castles were destroyed at this time. However, a few castles survived in several reason. And, during WW2, survived castles were destroyed by the damage from bombings and so on. But most of destruction of the castles were caused by the Meiji central government.

In the case of the Okazaki castle, new prefectural government dutifully obeyed the central government, then the area of the Okazaki castle changed into a park of citizens.

Reconstructed main tower

The building like the main tower was made in 1959. At that time, there was a boom of reconstruction of Japanese castles. People began to consider that they wanted to travel somewhere for their leisure. Many traveled around Japan. And they were fond of visiting castles. Many cities ausorities hoped to reconstruct their castle's main tower because most of them had been destroyed by the order of the Meiji central government.

The Okazaki castle main tower is exactly what every regional cities made. Its surface was designed after the original main tower, because the Okazaki city had a few old photos of it. But, inside is completely different from the original. Because they had no information of the inside and used their imagination. 

By the way, there are so many cherry trees inside the Okazaki-castle park. And there are so many viewing spots of cherry blossoms. In addition, there are a shrine, many refreshment shops, a playground, and so on.


Sight words of Okazaki city 

Now, we found these sight words, when we walked around Okazaki city.

fig.1; O-ha-ra-i

fig.2; Cha-ya

fig.3; Cha-shi-tsu

fig.4; Ta-ke-chi-yo

"O-ha-ra-i"
What is "Oharai"? We found this sign in front of a parking space of Iga-hachimangu shrine. To say precisely, "Kuruma no okiyome, oharai" is the correct writing of the sign.

Most of Japanese people believe both Deities and the Buddha. "Oharai" is related with Deities. When we pray to a deity of Japan, "Guuji" or the chief priest of the shrine help us how to behave in front of the deities. And, he chants "Norito" or the words of prayer of a Shinto shrine.
　
By the teachings of Shinto, we pile up "Kegare" or uncleanness bit by bit. If you live with a lot of uncleanness everyday, you may meet an unfortunate event suddenly. Therefore we should visit shrines and be refreshed our uncleanness many times.

When we finish prayer, we can feel refreshed. If one of the destinations of the travel is a shrine, we are sure to pray there. For Japanese people, visiting shrines and praying is one of musts.  

Generally speaking, "Kuruma no okiyome, oharai" is in the same frame of the Shinto teachings. New cars are also suffered "Kegare" as long as they are driving. For the drivers and new cars, "Okiyome" or refreshment ceremony is important. And also "Oharai" or cleaning ceremony is good for the driver and the new car.

If you happen to have a traffic accident, you can escape a serious situation. It may depend on the number of "Kegare".
Do you have such kind of cleansing ceremony in your custom?


"Cha-ya" and "Cha-shi-tsu"
Next, we think what are "Chaya" and "chashitsu" together. These are facilities of Okazaki-castle park too.

Chaya in Okazaki-castle park

We took some pictures of Chaya. These are like souvenir shops. By contrast, we didn't take a picture of Chashitsu, because it was surrounded by hedges. We have some pictures of Chashitsu located in other places. From these pictures, we can get the feeling of the profound ambience. Consequently, you might taste formal Japanese tea. 

Cyashitsu

In literal meaning, "Chaya" is a little shop offer tea. We have a feeling of this word that it's for ordinary people. Travelers of citizen class visited and ate Dango or rice puddings and drank a cup of tea in front of these shops, if they were in the Edo era.



Another chaya in okazaki-castle park

On the other hand, "Chashitsu" is a formal space where some high class people taste tea and play kind of tea ceremony. We suppose that these facilities were in a corner of handsome houses, if they were in the Edo era. In these facilities, people taste "Omatcha".
Do you remember these words?


"Ta-ke-chi-yo"
"Takechiyo" is a boy's name. Usually, the name "Takechiyo" was associated with the childhood name of Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, that isn't the only thing we want to explain. 

A son who succeed feudal lord was same as a prince of a country. His followers hanged hope on him. People knew the name "Takechiyo" was same as childhood name of Tokugawa Ieyasu who had become the ruler of Japan. So, many feudal lords named his son "Takechiyo" hoping his son's glory.

The reason this name was loved was not only it meant a ruler's  childhood name but also words used in it were considered lucky. "Take" means bamboo. And, bamboo grows straight rapidly. So, it's a good sign for boys, especially successor's boys. "Chiyo" means millenary. So, people imagined longtime prosperity from this word.

To think of girl's name of feudal lords, there comes "Tsuru-hime". "Tsuru" means a crane. Japanese people have a very good impression for a crane, because a crane is a symbol of long life. "Hime" means princess. So, she will be a very lucky girl because of her lucky name.