On 20th, I first go watching Kawase Festival in Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture. Actually, I had wanted like to go there, but couldn't because of the bad weather. The most attraction of Kawase Festival was "Mikoshi Arai", mikoshi sunk into the Arakawa river water to cleanse the impurities.
Getting off a train at Seibu-chichibu Station, I walked to Motomachi Street where floats were parading and many stalls were standing. Some local people performed a dance on the floats. I was surprised at the powerful parade, especially the floats passing close to the front of the stalls.
After the shrine visiting, I went back to Motomachi Street and ate something sold at the stalls. While the walking and eating, I dropped into some convenience stores, Chichibu Furusato Kan, and Hot Spot Chichibu Kan to escape the hot weather.
About one hour before the "Mikoshi Arai", I moved to Chichibu-koen Bridge, also nicknamed Chichibu Harp Bridge, to watch the event. However, the time almost to start the cleansing, it suddenly started to rain. I moved to a supermarket close to the bridge to waited for the rain stopping. Luckily, about 10 minutes later, the rain almost stopped and asked a guard standing outside how the festival went. According to his words, the mikoshi had waited for the floats to come to it, not the rain stopping.
Around 3:30 PM, soon after backing to the bridge, I heard a powerful voice, which was the sign for the mikoshi coming to the river.
これから「御輿洗い」が始まる合図となる火薬が打ち上げられた。橋の後方から御輿が姿を見せた。
The explosive balls, the sign for the beginning the event, were set off. Mikoshi carried and sunk in the river water appeared under the bridge.
The climax of "Mikoshi Arai" was that mikoshi carriers threw water at mikoshi. These two were the symbol of Chichibu in summer, and scenes I had wanted to photograph.
I knew the festival quite recently because of not so well-known in comparison with Chichibu Night Festival in December. As I gradually love the scenery in Chichibu, influenced by "Anohana ~the flower we saw that day~" anime, in which scenery of Chichibu City was pictured, and visiting while photographing the trains on Seibu Ikebukuro and Seibu-chichibu Lines, I really had been interested in this festival. It was good memory.