Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri

A danjiri is a carved wooden float on wheels, and Kishiwada's weigh around four tonnes. Elsewhere in Japan a float this size is walked. Here around five hundred people pull it at a dead run through ordinary residential streets, and the point of the whole thing is the yarimawashi, the corner. Turning several tonnes of timber through ninety degrees at speed, without braking, is done by the pullers swinging the front and the rear crew dragging the back around. It either works or the float hits a building. On the roof stands the daiku-gata, who dances the whole way. His job is partly signalling and partly showing that the crew is in control, which is more convincing on some corners than others. People are injured at this festival most years and there have been deaths. That is not a warning attached to the event by outsiders, it is understood by everyone taking part, and the town does not soften the description. Watch from behind the barriers.