''Takengei'' (竹ン芸) is a Japanese autumn

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

performance. It is currently held in the Wakamiya

Inari Inari may refer to: Shinto * Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit ** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari ** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari * Inari-zushi, a type of sushi Places * Inari, ...

Jinja shrine in

Nagasaki City is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

. Since 2003, it is officially registered as part of Japan’s Folk Intangible Patrimony. The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Heritage Online
竹ン芸　たけんげい
(no date). Takengei is an annual two-day event organized on October 14 and 15. Two 10 meters high

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

poles are erected inside the sanctuary; they are called “male bamboo” (男竹) and “female bamboo” (女竹). Accompanied by traditional

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, flutes and

shamisen The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...

, two people in white garb and with a

kitsune In Japanese folklore, , are foxes that possess paranormal abilities that increase as they get older and wiser. According to ''yōkai'' folklore, all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into human form. While some folktales speak of employing t ...

mask climb up the poles and declare to each other their love at the top of the bamboos. They also accomplish some kind of acrobatic performance. At the end, the fox at the top of the male bamboo throws around some small rice cakes (

mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan, it is traditionally ma ...

), pulls out of a pocket in his garb a chicken and lets it fly to the ground. Eventually both foxes go down the poles with a spectacular slide.

History

The festival was first performed in 1820, and dedicated by the Yaoyamachi (八百屋町) locality to

Nagasaki Kunchi , also or , is the most famous festival in Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan. It began as a celebration of autumn harvests in the late 16th century and became a shrine festival when Suwa Shrine (Nagasaki), Suwa Shrine was founded in 1642. Anoth ...

, held at Suwa Shrine. Performances continued annually until a major fire destroyed much of Suwa Shrine in 1856. After a dedication ceremony on November 24, 1896, Takengei has been dedicated to Wakamiya-Inari-Jinja, and continues to be performed every year in October. {{See also, Kitsune in popular culture

Notes

Shinto festivals Festivals in Japan