Mikoshi

Mikoshi are portable shrines set on poles.

Once or twice a year, Shinto shrines bring out their mikoshi and parade them through the streets. Dozens of men carry the heavy wooden beams that support the small, ornately decorated shrines. The bearers wear short coats and white shorts. They bind their heads with towels or scarves and don white, split-toed socks. As they carry their mikoshi, they shout and jostle for position. It's very lively.

Some mikoshi are accompanied by a large, festive cart with a taiko drum. Others have a more sedate procession of traditionally garbed priests waving stalks of bamboo as a blessing over the onlookers.