The Grand Procession was from 10am to 11:30am. After a lunch break were the horse races. Unfortunately my kyoto-sensei's planning missed the mark and we ended up walking into the park just as the last of the seven races was finishing up. Weaksauce.
Guess that explains why I was able to find a front row spot so easily, haha.
Soon after was the start of the Kibasen. If you're a fan of school-daze anime series and have seen an undoukai (sports day) episode, you may have seen the schoolyard version of the Kibasen event before. It's Japanese for "horse battle," which consists of 3 students forming a triangle (the horse) and a 4th person being held up to control the team (the rider). A parachute is shot into the air and the goal is to manuever so that your team can catch it.
At this event, however, they didn't need to MAKE horses since they already had them. And thus, a more interesting version of this event was set. See the video to see what I mean.
Vid 2 - This is the first bout we saw, but this video was taken when we were standing in a bad area. At least you can see the parachute ribbons fluttering down... and the last second of a guy getting thrown from his horse. Ouch. In just the first bout, two people were sent to the hospital by ambulance.
Vid 3 - We found a place to sit in the crowd, but the audience stands were soooo far from the field. I know the videos are crappy, but that's the reason (12x optical zoom + 48x digital zoom). Anyway, the 3 winners of each bout take the ribbons up the "Victory Road" to the judge's station to get their prize.
Vid 4 - here's a short, crappy video of Victory Road
"Mine!! Mine!! Mine!!" Oh wait, those aren't seagulls.
Participants of all ages were fighting it out for the honor of their clan and their shrine.
Part of the Grand Procession was a mock-up of the Emperor's Court. The guy with the big red ball tied to his back is the Emperor.
What I don't understand is that the Royal Court procession left after the 3rd bout, which made about 80% of the crowd (ourselves included) think the event was over. As we were walking down the main exit road, another bout started. We came all this way, so we saw it worthy to go back to our seats (well, better seats since the place was so empty). There were 6 or 7 more matches played to an empty stadium area, haha. WTH?
"VICTORY!!! Huh? Where the hell did everyone go!?"
Vid 5 - Of all the videos I took, I this one includes the highest number of interesting parts. It's a full battle, start to finish, plus it's not as shakey as the other vids I took (damn bugs climbing up my legs).
I want to make note that on at least two occassions, two riders had grabbed the ribbons at the same time, leading to a high-stakes game of tug-of-war (prizes, dammit!!!!). In one match, the battle lasted about 5 minutes. I suggested to my kyoto-sensei that they do rock-paper-scissors, Japan's answer to everything, but apparently this is waaaay beyond the realm of RPS123. Honor!!! They shoulda done rock-paper-katanabladetotheface!!! But no... they just both went up to the judging area to settle the matter... with a death match. I dunno, I couldn't see. I'm just going by what seems logical.
Though it was hot and smelly, and our view was terrible, I enjoyed the event. Is it worth traveling around the globe to see? I dunno, maybe if you're going to do the full 3-days, it would be. I know there were fireworks that night, and more events on the other days, but I would probably only recommend it if you're really really into samurai, or happen to be in the area at the time.
And no horses were hurt in the production of this event... this year. And no, that's not a joke, heh heh.
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