Japan History and Culture

The history of Nagasaki Kunchi Festival

The Kunchi festival of Nagasaki was first celebrated in 1634. As this date indicates, the festival was originally part of the bakufu policy to forge a Yamato spirit for Nagasaki, which up to 1614 had been Japan’s only Christian town. In other words, the Kunchi festival started out as an anti-Christian festival, in which the anti-Christian forces in Nagasaki: the bakufu, Shinto, Buddhism and the brothel wards all joined hands to provide an alternative to the famous Easter processions, which had been performed throughout the city during the Christian period (1570-1614).

From entries in the Daghregister of a fifty-year period between 1641 and 1692, I will trace the development of the relationship of the Dutch with the Kunchi festival as it grew under bakufu tutelage during the seventeenth century. By the time Kaempfer arrived in Japan in 1690, it had become an “established tradition” for the Dutch to attend the festival. On most representations of the festival we see, therefore, a place in the viewing stands reserved for the Dutch.

Today

It’s amazing to see how similar today’s festival is to the pictures and stories from centuries ago. I witnessed the 2000 edition of this festival (October 7-9).

A few days before the start of the festival I already noticed all the preparations being made in the city. At the Suwa shrine, the main location, a big viewing stand was being build, and camera teams were installing their equipment. In the hotel and at the visitors desk at the train station I was told that it was impossible to get tickets for the performances at the Suwa shrine.

Despite that, I decided to go to the Suwa shrine on the first morning of the festival. The performances already had started, and I tried to get closer to the action, along the stairs leading to the shrine. My Dutch length in comparison to the height of the average Japanese was big advantage that day.

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, I could see the presentations very well. The music during the performances makes it even more incredible. The whole event was broadcasted live by several television stations.

After each presentation the participants leave the area via the stairs, leading down to the city. A great opportunity to see everything from a very close distance.

In the afternoon the various groups can be found throughout the central part of Nagasaki, holding informal performances (called niwasaki mawari).

The train station proved to be the best place to get a good view on all the performances I had missed at the Suwa Shrine. These presentations were dedicated to the chief of the station, who you can see sitting on the right of the picture. He seemed very excited!