This festival took place on Dec 3th '06 at Kannonbaru-Hachiman shrine in Imari city.
Only men in the community holding leaves of mulberry in their mouths make 833 rice balls made of newly produced rice. The two groups of men, representing the two sides involved in the civil war that took place in the Nanbokucho era, are fighting over the cage containing all the rice balls. While seniors are striking the stage with lit torches, youngsters on the stage are shouting without fear.
At the end of the festival, the youngsters provided people with the rice balls which are believed lucky charms preventing ones from any diseases. Actually I got and ate one. Here in Japan, many fire festivals take place from December to January. Exposing to ashes, smokes from the fire at shrine is also believed to purify people. I exposed a lot of them indeed at this festival!!
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