44. Tokyo in Fall.
A perfect kaleidoscope
My neighborhood’s aki matsuri (fall festival) is held in mid-September. As in so many other Tokyo communities, portable shinto shrines are paraded through the streets, yet the main event is the taiko drumming and dancing in the local park that lasts late into the night. It's not crowded or rehearsed or put on for show. It is a time for local residents to come together: young and the old; some in traditional clothing, some in jeans and t-shirts; some who know the traditional dance steps, some who learn as they join.
At the festival, I once again thought of the words of the photographer Issei Suda:
“In the dance circle, people of all ages gather together. From children, small girls and wives to mothers and elderly women, the entirety of a woman’s life unfolds in the moving circle (the same goes for the men, of course). It is a perfect kaleidoscope of the transmigration from birth to death and birth again. In the confines of the dance circle, remembering children, wives, mothers who have departed this world does not seem a strange thing. The deep emotions of a matsuri night are founded on sadness and a depth beyond imagination.”1
Once the matsuri is over, the days glide on toward the fall equinox and the Japanese Buddhist holiday, o-higan. As the length of days and nights become equal, it is said that the worlds of the living and the dead draw close together. It will be a busy week for Tokyo’s flower shops since many will be tending to their family graves.
We have numerous temples and graveyards in my neighborhood. Yet despite the area’s somewhat historic atmosphere, we are not immune to the rapid development that continues to sweep through Tokyo. I was struck recently by this view behind one of the temples in my neighborhood.
On a related note: the collective I am a part of, VoidTokyo, was born from a desire to preserve in print a record of Tokyo’s changes. Volume Ten will be published later this fall.
Also, very limited copies of my latest personal work, 東京は花ーTokyo is Flowers, are still available.
I am grateful for your support.
Joel
Issei Suda, “Opposite the Matsuri” (2007).