Let me start with the story behind the battle. Echizen is home to the shrine dedicated Kawakamigozen, the goddess of papermaking. (Echizen has been a major papermaking center for centuries). Like most shrines, once a year, the gods and goddesses are taken out of their main shrines to visit the smaller local shrines around them, and then to spend a good portion of the year up in a mountaintop shrine, deep within their natural surroundings. The Otaki shrine, the head shrine for Kawakamigozen, does this on Children’s Day every year.

The festival starts early in the day, and looks like most festivals; a horde of local men gather and the priests perform a ceremony to remove the goddess from her shrine and put her into a golden mikoshi — a sort of portable shrine/palanquin. You can see how big it is, and it probably weighs somewhere close to a ton. The men carry the shrine on their shoulders throughout the town, visiting them one-by-one, taking a short break at each shrine (usually accompanied by a throng of followers who supply everyone with ample alcohol!) and then continuing on to the next. This process takes all day, and around 5 pm or so they reach the next-to-last shrine on their stop: the Iwamoto shrine.

Approach to Iwamoto Shrine

Iwamoto Shrine entrance

Inside the Shrine

Carrying the Mikoshi (if you look closely you can see two tengu leading the procession)

Iwamoto is a very large shrine, and its locals are very passionate. They want to keep the goddess at their shrine instead of letting her return to Otaki and to her mountaintop. So when the Otaki boys try to take the mikoshi out of the Iwamoto shrine, the Iwamoto men gather to block their exit at the torii (shrine gate). This turns into a very interesting unchoreographed battle, which each year has me gritting my teeth with anxiety as I am sure someone will get trampled and die. (In fact this year was particularly aggressive, as their were a lot of younger, passionate men who did not want to play nicely. Some punches and kicks were thrown and a few people did get trampled, but there were no serious injuries.)

The heavy shrine is carried on their shoulders while the men engage in a wild and dangerous push-of-war. They are drunk, and their shoulders are purple and swollen with welts from the weight of the mikoshi. This year the battle lasted about 13 minutes. You can see a video of the majority of the battle here:

And just to give you an idea of what is beyond the torii, take a look at this steep stone staircase which they have to fight to carry that mikoshi down!

Be careful!

So finally the Otaki boys were able to take the shrine back home! The festival doesn’t end yet, though. They take the mikoshi back to the Otaki shrine for a while to let the goddess (and the men!) rest, and then during the night, at a paper-lantern-lit ceremony, Shinto music is played and a silent and very theatrical show is put on as the priests removes Kawakamigozen and her companions from their wooden shrine house into the mikoshi, to be carried up the mountain. By this time everyone is drunk and exhausted, and the mountain is unpaved and pitch black, so this is at least as dangerous as the shrine battle, if not moreso. But the climb is sacred and otherwordly, and even 90-year old grandmothers and grandfathers dutifully hike up the mountain in pitch-black, guided only by the dim candlelight of their paper lanterns.

You can order your paperback copy directly from CreateSpace, or from Amazon.com. The digital version will also be is also available on Amazon.com within a few days! Check your local brick-and-mortar bookstores too!

Yokai – monsters from Japanese folklore – are some of the zaniest and wildest things ever imagined up. From the mists of Japanese prehistory, through the medieval ages, up to today, the bestiary of Japanese folklore contains a wide range of monsters. There are women with extra mouths in the backs of their heads, water goblins whose favorite food is human anus, elephant-dragons which feed solely on bad dreams, dead baby zombies, talking foxes, fire-breathing chickens, animated blobs of rotten flesh that run about the streets at night…

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is a massive illustrated bestiary choc full of yokai. It features over one hundred traditional Japanese monsters, each one beautifully illustrated in full color by yokai artist Matthew Meyer. Each yokai is described in detail, including origins, habitat, diet, and legend, based on translations from centuries-old Japanese texts.

Read this book, and the next time you watch an anime or a Godzilla movie, you’ll be able to recognize their folkloric ancestors dating back centuries. You’ll find out about all of the strange mythical animals you can see at temples and shrines, on beer can labels, and even on Japanese money. Meet the predecessors to Pokemon, Power Rangers, scary J-horror girls, and all of the strange creatures that pop up in Japanese video games. Night Parade will turn anyone with a passing interest in Japanese folklore into a full-blown yokai expert!

The book is 224 pages, with over one hundred full-color paintings. Inside the book you will find all of the following yokai: Abura-sumashi, Aka-name, Aka-shita, Ame-onna, Ao-andon, Ao-nyōbō, Ao-sagi-bi, Azuki-arai, Azuki-babā, Azuki-hakari, Bake-kujira, Bake-neko, Bake-zōri, Baku, Basan, Betobeto-san, Biwa-bokuboku, Chōchin-obake, Chōpirako, Dai-tengu, Doro-ta-bō, Funa-yūrei, Futa-kuchi-onna, Garappa, Gasha-dokuro, Hari-onago, Hito-dama, Hitotsu-me-kozō, Hitotsu-me-nyūdō, Hone-onna, Hō-ō, Hyakki Yagyō, Hyakume, Hyōsube, Iso-onna, Isonade, Itachi, Ittan-momen, Jatai, Jorō-gumo, Jubokko, Kage-onna, Kama-itachi, Kami-kiri, Kappa, Karakasa-kozō, Katawa-guruma, Kawauso, Kerakera-onna, Keukegen, Kijimunā, Kijo, Kirin, Kitsune, Kitsune-bi, Ko-dama, Komainu, Koromo-dako, Kosode-no-te, Kotengu, Koto-furunushi, Kuchi-sake-onna, Kyōrinrin, Mikoshi-nyūdō, Mokumoku-ren, Mujina, Neko-mata, Ningyo, Noppera-bō, Nozuchi, Nuke-kubi, Nuppeppō, Nurarihyon, Nure-onago, Nure-onna, Nuri-botoke, Ohaguro-bettari, Oni, Oni-bi, Onryō, Ō-nyūdō, Otoroshi, Reiki, Rokuro-kubi, Seto-taishō, Shami-chōrō, Shiro-uneri, Shōjō, Shōkera, Suzuri-no-tamashii, Taka-nyūdō, Taka-onna, Tanuki, Tatsu, Tsuchi-gumo, Tsurube-otoshi, Ubume, Umi-bōzu, Ushi-oni, Usu-tsuki-warashi, Uwan, Waira, Yama-uba, Yamabiko, Yamawaro, Yuki-onna, Yūrei, and Zashiki-warashi. Each yokai has a detailed description based on translations of documents hundreds of years old, and an illustration based on classical descriptions, woodblock prints, and paintings from throughout Japanese history.

You won’t find any other book on yokai with this many monsters in it; let alone this many color illustrations! Here’s a few preview pages from the book so you can get a feel for what the whole thing looks like:

An interesting thing happened today as well — just before writing this update, a stork just like Ecchan flew past my window! March is when they migrate back to Japan from China, and considering there are only a few hundred or so in all of Japan, this was a great sighting for me and for my town! The storks are back in Echizen for the summer!

Ecchan #12

Panel 1:「この金属製のふたは、何ごみなの？」
What kind of trash is this metal cap?
Panel 2:「金属製なら『燃やせないごみ』」
If it’s a metal cap, it’s non-burnable trash!
Panel 3:「プラスチック製なら、ほとんどが『プラごみ※』だよ。」
If it’s made of plastic, usually it will be puragomi.
Panel 4:「プラごみは資源として再利用されるごみの一つだから、汚れていないことが条件だよ！」
Puragomi is one kind of recyclable trash, so make sure it is not dirty when you throw it out!

All of the Ecchan comics can be viewed in Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and English at the Echizen International Association’s website: http://www.e-i-a.jp/en/help/garbage/

I mentioned before how each of these monthly comics is accompanied by a page of text detailing the rules in depth for foreigners to correctly separate their trash. Well, now you can see all of the comics with their full descriptions in Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and English on the newly-redesigned Echizen International Association website. You can find all of the comics here: http://www.e-i-a.jp/en/help/garbage/

Ecchan #11

Panel 1: ビンや缶は、全部『資源ごみ』の日に捨てればいいの？
Can I throw out all my glass bottles and cans on recycling day?
Panel 2: 違うよ。『資源ごみ』と『燃やせないごみ』に分かれる。 | え！？どうやって？
No. They are split up into recyclable and non-burnable trash. | What?! How do you know which?
Panel 3: ポイントは、飲食物が入っていたかどうか！ | たとえば、ジャムのビンは『資源ごみ』で、化粧品のビンは『燃やせないごみ』だよ！
The main point is whether food was contained in them or not. | For example, a jar of jam would be recyclable, while a makeup jar would be non-burnable trash!

There’s not much more to say… Night Parade has been keeping me too busy to post much. I’m sure many of you are waiting for an update on the book, so I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give it a decent post in a while. Expect the big announcement on that pretty soon though!

Ecchan #10

Panel 1: スプレー缶を捨てるときは、必ず穴を開けないといけないよ。
When you throw away spray cans, you must poke a hole into them.
Panel 2: 他のゴミに混ざっていると、ゴミを回収して運ぶとき、とても危ないんだ！
If you mix them up with other types of trash, when the trash is collected it can be very dangerous!
Panel 3: こわい！じゃあ、スプレー缶は、いつ、どこに捨てればいいの？
That’s scary! So, when and where should I throw spray cans away?
Panel 4: 町内で決まっている『資源ごみの日』に、ゴミステーションで分別して出すよ。
Take it to your trash station on the designated day and throw it in the designated bin!

Christmas Ecchan

Happy New Year! I meant to upload this post on Christmas, but the end of December flew by me so quickly that it was January before I even knew it! I’m happy to say that The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is almost finished, and will be published very soon — hopefully within a month. In the meantime, here is last month’s Ecchan comic, and a Santa Ecchan to celebrate the holiday season. A little late, but better late than never!

I did find out recently that Ecchan will not be renewed next year. That’s a big disappointment, as I really enjoyed making these. There will still be three more comics (up through March) in this series, but that will be the end of the series, unless it ever gets renewed some time in the future. It’s a little puzzling to me, as city hall has spent so much time, money, and energy trying to reinvent Echizen this year as a) a hot spot for storks, and b) an ecologically restored, clean and green town. Hopefully this just means a change of direction, and not that the move to promote ecology and wildlife was just a one-year fad… but it’s hard to tell with politicians and bureaucrats.

Anyway, on to December’s comic:

Ecchan #9

Panel 1:「プラごみ*はプラスチックとして再利用されるよ。」
“‘Puragomi’ is recycled as plastic.”

Panel 2:「汚れていたら、水でさっと汚れを流そう！」「え！？ゴミなのにどうして洗うの？」
“If it’s dirty, wash it out with water!”  ”Huh!? Even though it’s trash, I have to wash it?”

Panel 3:「汚れがあるとリサイクルできないないんだ。」
“That’s because it can’t be recycled if it is dirty.”

Panel 4:「資源を大切にするために、私たちも協力しなくちゃね！」
“We all have to work together to conserve resources!”

This month’s Ecchan comic has been finished and continues the theme of separate trash. Looking at it here I often forget that we’re seeing a slightly incomplete version, as that funny brown bar at the top demonstrates. That empty space is used, along with a large area below the comic, for extra information on the month’s topic. So if it looks strange on this site, that’s normal! Today’s comic doesn’t make much sense on its own, but it headlines an article detailing the proper way to separate plastic trash from other nonburnable trash.

Ecchan #8

Panel 1: 「プラゴミ」って、プラスチック製のゴミのこと？
“Puragomi…” does that mean plastic garbage?
Panel 2: ううん、ちがうよ。商品の容器や包装に使われていたビニール製のゴミが「プラごみ」なんだ！
Not quite. Plastic containers and plastic wrappers are classified as “puragomi.”
Panel 3: ほら、このプラマークが目印だよ！
Look, here is the “puragomi” mark!

Halloween Ecchan

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post! The October edition of Ecchan.

Obviously I wanted to do a Halloween-themed Ecchan, which you can see to the right. The story doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween, but it’s nice to keep up with the seasons somehow, especially considering that Japan is so in-touch with seasonal changes that to let them go by unnoticed seems weird.

This month continues the same topic as before. Here is the script:

Panel 1: CDラジカセこわれたから、買ったんだ！
“My CD player broke, so I bought this!
Panel 2:これはどうやって捨てるの？
How do we throw this away?
Panel 3:小型家電は「燃やせないごみ」だよ。
Small consumer electronics go in “nonburnable garbage!”
Panel 4: 電池は必ず取り出して、有害ごみ(※)として捨てるよ。
Make sure you take out the batteries, and treat them as hazardous garbage!

Ecchan #7

Tsukimi Ecchan

My site has been pretty quiet for a while now, due to me working on yokai paintings. Last year at this time I would be restarting the A-Yokai-A-Day project for the month of October, but the fact that I am doing this book means that the past A-Yokai-A-Day projects were successful enough.

Of course if you’re a backer of my Kickstarter project you’ve been getting a new yokai almost every day in your mailbox since July, when I started for painting this project. Now I am entering month 4 of non-stop daily yokai painting, and I have crossed the halfway point, with over 60 of the 100 final images completed. Right on schedule! Only 2 months left to go…

In the meantime, while I can’t show my new yokai paintings on my blog just yet (that’s private for backers of the project), I can show the other art I’m working on at the same time. Here is last month’s issue of Kounotori Ecchan no Eco-na Hanashi. It continues August’s theme of properly disposing of non-burnable garbage, and features a Fukui prefecture staple: the Echizen crab! If your wondering if Japan’s garbage disposal system is really so complicated that it takes months of comic strips just to explain it, the answer is YES!

I also did a tsukimi (moon-viewing) Ecchan for the footer text, which you can see to the left!

Anyway, here is the comic, and the English translation:

Panel 1: 陶器なども「燃やせないゴミ」だよ！
Ceramic-ware is unburnable garbage!
Panel 2: 割れてなくても、新聞紙などに包んで透明のゴミ袋に「キケン」と書こう！
Even if it’s not broken, wrap it up in newspaper and put it in a clear plastic bag marked “Dangerous!”
Panel 3: ゴムや皮の製品も「燃やせないゴミ」！
Rubber and leather are also unburnable garbage!
Panel 4: ゴミを細かくする機械にひっかからないよう、長いゴミは適当に切ってね！
Cut long items up into small enough pieces that they won’t get caught in the trash processing machines!

Ecchan #6

If you’re in the area on October 9th, please come and enjoy the festival!

Kiku Chikyu Hakue 2011