Shishimai

Photo Diary: 7th Sep 2009. After spending the best part of the week riding around trying to get some decent photos of Angama I was almost disappointed when I heard that there was yet another event to be covered. Don't get me wrong, I love photography, but wading through hundreds of photos trying to find the best of the bunch loses its appeal after a while.

 

If I'd known how entertaining the Shishimai festival at Ohama was going to be I wouldn't have toyed with the option of giving it a miss in favour of going to an Izakaya with some friends and looking back I'm so glad that I went. Shishimai festivals, which are a cultural import from China, are lion dances which are held throughout Okinawa. The lion dance at Ohama involved two lions, each of which had two men inside the costume, with the one at the front controlling its mouth and head.

 

The level of skill which these guys displayed in controlling these cumbersome suits as the lions danced, climbed onto barrels and threw objects to each other was quite incredible. In fact, of all the individual performances that I've seen during festivals on Ishigaki island this was probably the most impressive.

 

Just when I thought that the performance had finished a tradition began which I was totally unaware of. This involved the lions charging into the crowd and biting the heads of small children. Having your head bitten is thought to bring good luck and many parents openly offer their children's heads to the lion's jaws. I even saw one poor kid getting dragged out of the crowd about 5 meters across the grass by his head. That same lion also thought it would be hilarious to steal a gaijin's hat!

 

Needless to say, some kids clearly found the whole experience quite frightening and a few of them emerged from the lion's mouth with tears rolling down their faces (I can understand how they feel as I still remember being terrified by a guy in an ape suit when I was about 5 years old).