INTO THE FOLD

There is not a breath of breeze in the makeshift stadium in front of the Suwa-Jinja shinto shrine in Nagasaki as a band of costumed dancers takes to the stage, prancing around and high-stepping like marionettes. A few high clouds scud through the sky as a large kasabako (parade float) shaped like a Dutch sailing ship is pulled clockwise at high speed by men wearing geta (traditional Japanese footwear) and hachimaki (headbands), much to the delight of the appreciative crowd.

It’s one of the most dramatic performances of the annual Nagasaki Kunchi Festival, which has been celebrated for about 400 years at the shrine, which was destroyed by Christians in the 16th century and rebuilt by the government in 1614 (the same year the first Shōgun of the Edo period declared an edict against