The Kunchi fesrtival is held every year in November in the town of Kuratsu in Shiga prefecture. It is a very old celebration and involves the townspeople dragging enormous floats through the streets.
These are much bigger than the usual Mikoshi seen at other festivals. Hundreds of years old, the floats must have cost a fortune to make and maintain as they are full of gold leaf and Chinese lacquer.
The event lasts three days and nights.
Everyone gets involved with even very young children helping to drag the floats around.
Some care has to be taken to avoid overhead powerlines and of course not run anyone over.
Between the dragging there are many breaks for sumptious meals.
We were invited to the private home of one of the participants and this is what was for lunch.
Kuratsu itself is a lovely small seaside town between Fukuoka and Nagasaki. It is famous for its pottery as well as the festival.
We visited an old family store in a beautiful building.
There is a vertical kiln that is hundreds of years old, it is no longer in use but identical ones still are.
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