Log riding - Onbashira Festival

Todays post is connected to yesterdays trip to Suwa. Connected with the shrine we visited yesterday is the tradition of cramming a bunch of men onto a log, and then yanking that log down a hill. It's absurd, and dangerrous, in fact it"s absurdly dangerous.

Many people have died, and many more are badly injured, but the tradition survives. It has been around for more then 1200 years, and is due occur again in 2016. 

The log riding is one of several parts of a ceremony of renewing the shrine.

Stages of this tradition are as follows:

Caring for and grooming the tree

Creating the tools for cutting down the tree

Cutting down the tree

Bringing the tree across the rough terrain back to the shrine (and hence the log riding)

Raising the tree/pillar by hand

An unedited view of the log riding festival.