April 26, 2007
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To get our new web site up all of the way, we are currently redesigning our logo. Here is my second mock-up. We have a very cool graphic designer out in California doing the final version for us. As a couple of people have already asked, this is not going to be the final color.
Being a foreigner in a Japanese company, you are required to participate in every activity imaginable (Well, get your minds out of the gutter!). The area I was living in had the heaviest portable shrines in all of Japan. 85% of the time they are wheeled around, but the other 15% they are carried by shoulder or hoisted over head. It usually takes about 210 men to even get if off of the ground. Since this is a “mens’ festival”, women are not allowed to participate. And high-school age boys are not allowed to participate because of the strength required and the danger (Someone is killed every year or two!). The difficulty for foreigners is that our shoulders are about 6 inches above the height of Japanese mens’ shoulders, so we have to crouch over a bit which is much more difficult than just carrying the thing. The area where I lived have taiko, or big Japanese drums, mounted in the center of the float with two people always banging away. There are four young men who stand on the carrying poles to direct everyone and to cheer us on. And finally there are four small men in the very top (“cloud”) of the float whose main responsibility is to keep us from bumping into things–especially wires! I am the “big” white guy in the middle front (The spot always reserved for foreigners in Japan!).
Here is a picture of our Artistic Director, Akane’, taken late last fall. She didn’t really want me to post this, so I couldn’t resist. She is always smiling and really adds a lot of energy to everything we do here at Luminaire Photography.
Finally, here is another picture of myself at Franklin Park Conservatory taken by Bill Morgan. This one has not been tweaked in Photoshop. This is a very cool picture and many photographers use it in the backgrounds of their wedding shots at the Conservatory. If I find out the name of the sculture and the artist, I will post it here.
Comments (3)
RYC: Don’t know why I use “concatenate.” I like the sound of it. I always thought it was an interesting word. As for my profile pic, I got it from istockphoto.com.
I had to participate in one of those shrine carrying parades once. I was happy that I was an average sized Japanese guy among a whole bunch of tall white guys. They carried most of the weight for me.
wow…that sure looks like one heavy azz mikoshi. And i thought the mikoshi we have here in san francisco was heavy! we just did it last weekend. check out my blog. people actually dying while carrying this mikoshi???? …unbelievable!
The town where I was was originally a farming village and later was a copper mining village (the original home and work of Sumitomo), so the goal is to show off the strength of the men in town. To contrast this, the neighboring town has danjiri rather than taikodai. I don’t think they ever lift them off of the ground; they are very light and playful in how they move. This neighboring town was originally a castle town and the manner of their festivals reflect that.
Some of the streets are so narrow and the size and the momentum of the taikodai often smashes people that are continually aware of what is going on. The other thing to do is fighting; they ram the taikodai head on into each other. If the teams aren’t skilled, the ends of the carrying poles don’t smack straight on and they travel all of the way back through the carriers. ‘nough said.
Recently one of the taikodai was too heavy to get off of the ground despite the local neighborhood’s best efforts, so they had to turn the carrying poles to take off the extra weight.