Ton Ten Ton Festival

Imari had its famous festival from October 22-24. Ross and I participated in the parade of dancing that took place one afternoon during the festival. Since there weren’t any other foreigners involved in the dancing, we definitely stood out. People are still commenting when they see me in the grocery store or on the street. The festival has two shrines that fight over and over again for three days. I took a picture of a miniature shrine held by some children walking in the streets. The real shrines are much larger. The events are actually quite dangerous. There were people seriously injured every time they fought. The final fight, where the shrines battle into the river was cancelled this year because an 18 year old high school student was killed during one of the battles in the daytime. The last time there was a death in the festival was about 9 years ago.