Ajishima Maritime Festival

Flying the flags of the families of fishermen from Ajishima

Yesterday, Ajishima held a big festival to celebrate the island's fishermen and to pray for an abundant catch this season. Since Michie and I don't partake of fish, we prayed for the fishermen's safety and for the fish to swim really quickly!

I was also very fortunate to be invited to help carry the ceremonial shrine...

We spent the day before the festival setting up

When I say "Ajishima" held a festival, I should say that only one half of the island held a festival. The island is divided in two: Aji and Futawatashi. Yesterday's event was put on by and for the people of Futawatashi. The Aji side apparently has their own festival in the fall, that I will try to get involved in as well. Of the hundred or so spectators, I only saw one person from Aji in attendance.

This division goes back hundreds of years to the island's origins as a prison island, when different strata of prisoners ended up on the different halves of the island. Some of the animosity and negative rivalries from that time exist even today and are basically geographic in origin, based on which side of the island a person was born. As a non-Japanese outsider (read: foreigner with an ear-to-ear grin) I have special access to people on both sides of the island that a native islander or Japanese outsider from the mainland does not. Combined with Michie's work as a nurse serving the entire island, we are both able to concentrate our efforts on the island as a whole, bringing the two halves back together, meeting in the middle and becoming a peacefully unified island.

Another unique problem arose amongst the team of men meant to carry the shrine. Of the fourteen members, only one other guy and I actually live on Ajishima. All the rest live scattered about the mainland, and are friends or relatives of some islanders.

The shrine is carried all around the island from Maeno Port to Negumi Port and back again

Countless times, the shrine goes into the sea...

...and back out...

...and then all around the island...

...through the narrow, hilly streets...

...and back into the sea!

Carrying the shrine is a back breaking labor of love. My shoulders are still throbbing the day after and they will turn black and blue in another day or two. But that is ok, because I have the strength to spare and am happy to contribute whatever I can to the wellbeing of the island. Ajishima got a much needed infusion of youthful energy, even if only for a day. It was such a great site to behold: so many tourists plus distant relatives returning to their families' homes, young families, kids in tow, and all the islands' grandmas and grandpas celebrating and giving thanks to the sea that supports them.

Even if I don't support the fishing practices I would never begrudge the fishermen their livelihood. And in the end that is was this is all about; assuring the future of Ajishima and its ability to provide for the people who make this island their home.

Never have fourteen wet, cold and literally beat-up dudes been so excited to take a picture!