Odawara Hojo Festival

Samurai festival

Published on June 20, 2007 By avonhill In Fun destinations

Well a bit late, but better late than never right? During Golden Week in Japan (one week of holidays from the end of April to the start of May) I went to a samurai festival in Odawara (a city near Yokohama) at Odawara Castle. The festival is to celebrate the feudal lords who used to rule this area, the Hojo clan, during Japan's warring states period (1467-1603). There was a parade, lots of people in costumes, people firing the old Japanese arquebus, and one overenthusiastic samurai who had what looked like a homemade mortar, using it to lob explosives into the air. The festival is on May 3rd. Photos are as follows

The last photo is the badge (in Japanese, the 'Mon') of the ruling clan. Like most Samurai, they were defeated in battle and had to kill themselves (kara kiri). But, the best part was the old police weapons. Check this out, it was used to control crazy people

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