BLOG 14. “Karakuri chariots marching on the street – Jingukougou-sha”

I am explaining about Arimatsu festival from BLOG 7 to now. There are three karakuri chariots on this festival which are Hotei-sha, Jingukougou-sha and Karako-sha. I reported about Hotei-sha from BLOG 8 to 13.

Here is the movie of Jingukougou-sha marching on the street. This chariot was made in 1873. Jingukougou (Empress Jingu) was a legendary empress of 2nd~3rd century. 

There is the explanation how to make a karakuri toy of Jingukougou inserted in Karakuri Zui published in 1796, and I translated and annotated of the pages of the book in Japanese Automata Karakuri Zui (JAK). The pages of the book are from p.226 to 243. By the way, the sample pages of JAK are at BLOG3. 

BLOG 13.  “Writer doll on the karakuri chariots – How to perform”

This is the last report for Hotei-sha telling from BLOG 7. I had the permission to go into Hotei-sha and shot on this movie how to manipulate two dolls. One doll turns the base like walking around it, and the other doll holds a brush to write a kanji, or Chinese character on the paper attached the flag-plate.

As one movie file for the blog is limited within 100 Mbytes, the karakuri performance here was divided into two parts.

You can see the four men manipulate the dolls from inside of the chariot. They do not only turn the base and also turn the handle which the doll gripping as if effected that the doll turn the handle to move the base. Then one man sits on the bench in the other side of the pillar which manipulate the writer doll. This karakuri has several plates engraved one kanji word each on the surface, and the man sitting to the pillar puts the select one of the plates on the pillar. He will trace the groove of the kanji on this plate by the pen connected to the rod which manipulate the arm of the writer doll. As the result, the doll writes a kanji.

 

BLOG 12.  “Writer doll on the karakuri chariots – Preparing to write”

In the chariot, manipulators of the doll are preparing for the performance. The doll will write a kanji, or Chinese character to the paper on the panel which holds like the flag attached the pole.

BLOG 11.  “Karakuri chariots – Enter to karakuri performance”

This movie is continuation from BLOG 10. Hotei-sha is entering into a town square to show the karakuri performance. Other karakuri chariots will do their performances, too in this square as the fourth photo of BLOG 7.
There are musicians inside the chariot and you can hear that they beat drums and set the tempo for the chariot to go into the square.

 

BLOG 10.  “Writer doll on the karakuri chariots - Marching”

This is a continuation from BLOG 7 to BLOG 9. The movie here is that I shot Hotei-sha marching on the street of the old Tokai-do (Tokai way) through Nagoya city. Tokai-do was the main line connected from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto in Edo period (1603-1867).