The Shinmei festival in Mihara - Japan 3 -

I came back home again in this middle of winter for an important event I really want to attend- the Shinmei festival. It celebrates the arrival of Spring based on the luner calender actually, although in reality it takes place in the freezing cold season.

In Mihara, there are two major annual events ; the Yassa dance festival in summer, and this festival in winter. During the Shinmei Festival, poople gather friends and family to stroll through the streets, enjoying food from stalls. It all starts with a massive daruma display - an armless figure believed to help make wishes come true.

I absolutely loved it when I was a kid. Buying lollies from the  stall was my favorite part.

When I viited this time, the weather was unusually stormy, which was so rare for this time of year. To warm ourselves up, we bought amazake - traditional sweet, hot rice drink. One of the local specialities is sake from Suisin Brewery, and their Amazake became one of my favorites though I didn't enjoy before. It is said that the Japanese artist Yokoyama Taikan was also a fan, which helped so make it well known across Japan.

The daruma there is the largest in Japan. The one I saw was the fouth-generation model, but personally, I prefer the original one - it had a more serious, striking face.

The castle foundation was covered in snow.

Boxes filled with old Daruma were piled up in snow as well. They would later be prayed over by monk.

Colourful Daruma! There were far more varieties than I expected - they used to be just red.

The daruma competition featured 500 darumas this year. Interestingly, the top two in the photo were submitted by my friednd and a bar owner, showing that the event is opened to anyone. I think this type of initiatives like this are as a great way to promote this festival and engage younger generations.