Young locals called Funako leading burning boats in rapid water (in Kuroishi-shi, Aomori Prefecture)
Veteran farmers instructing young farmers how to build traditional boats using reed and rice straws in morning of festival day
Okawara-no-Hinagashi is a festival held on August 16, every year, in Okawara, Kuroishi-shi, Aomori Prefecture, where small straw boats are set on fire and let out in the river. The festival with an approximately 700 years of history has been preserved by the community as a ritual to tell if people can expect abundant crops next year.
The three boats were put in the water in
Three boats ready to set off
the evening and the locals set fire to them. Five or six young local men called Funako in traditional working clothes walked along each boat, pulling and pushing it to help it travel approximately 400 meters in the wild rocky river.
Young locals with flambeaux walking toward boats
At the end of the festival, the 65-year-old chairman of the association for the preservation of Okawara-no-Hinagashi festival, Tetsuo Musashi, predicted the amount of the crops in 2017 from the size of the fire this year.