More on yakuza involvement in Shinto festivals

AS CHANCE WOULD HAVE IT, two articles appeared today that provided more detail on the content of yesterday’s post (below) about efforts in Tokyo to prevent an overt yakuza presence at traditional Shinto festivals. It’s been a tradition for many years to allow people to stand on mikoshi, or portable shrines, as they are being carried during the Asakusa shrine’s Sanja Matsuri, despite the belief by some that this is a sacrilege because the shrines carry the spirit of the divinity. This festival is one of the few in which the yakuza make their participation obvious by riding on the mikoshi bare-chested, displaying their elaborate tattoos.

Since Japan’s largest organized crime organization, the Yamaguchi-gumi, assumed control of the local yakuza group in Taito Ward, the location of the Asakusa shrine, police have wanted to clamp down on the gangsters’ visibility and dispel the impression that they are the ultimate authority in the area. According to reports, the police took the unusual step of arresting three people during the festival last month—one for climbing on the mikoshi and creating a disturbance, and two for getting into a shoving match with police.

Meanwhile, columnist Azusa Onogawa took the media to task for reporting the disturbances but for failing to mention the yakuza involvement. That all changed today.

This Japanese-language snippet from Supootsu Nippon reports that police arrested “a second man” for disturbances at the festival (contradicting earlier reports of three arrests). A neighborhood resident was charged for climbing up on a mikoshi and waving a Japanese-style fan up and down and side to side to “incite” the people carrying the shrine.

It doesn’t sound like much of a crime–but everyone reading the article raised their eyebrows when they came to the passage reporting that the suspect is employed as a tattoo artist. While the suspect may not be a hoodlum himself, they immediately understood that he hangs out in those circles.

The second article appeared in the Japanese-language version of the Asahi Shimbun about the Torikoe Festival, scheduled for this weekend. The festival itself has a rich tradition dating back about 1,350 years to the latter part of the Heian Period. It features a four-ton mikoshi, one of the heaviest used in Japan, being hauled around the neighborhood by 100 people at a time. The climax comes at night when the mikoshi, festooned with 40 traditional lanterns, is brought back to the shrine. There is a 100-meter stretch in front of the Torikoe Shrine where people throng to watch the mikoshi’s return.

Only people from the neighborhood are allowed to carry the portable shrine, but for the past few years, the festival has been plagued by “people from outside the area” who have been barging into the action and trying to climb on board. These are the sort of people who are used to getting their way regardless of the letter of the law. Naturally, the festival organizers asked the police to help keep things from getting out of hand. After some officers were injured in a scuffle four years ago, the organizers had to erect a two-meter high fence along the route to prevent the unauthorized participation by those looking for some action.

This year, however, police are cutting back on their presence at the Torikoe Festival by 30%—a stance directly opposite from that of law enforcement at the Sanja Festival in the same ward last month. They’ve called on the festival organizers to assume more direct responsibility for crowd control. The police say it’s one thing for them to protect the people viewing the festival, but quite another to go to all that trouble just to protect a mikoshi. They also point out the personnel are going to be needed for security at the G-8 summit next year anyway.

The key element in the story has been tucked away toward the bottom. Here it is in Japanese:

乱入するのは、主に「同好会」と呼ばれる担ぎ手集団の一部とみられている。同好会は地元の担ぎ手不足を背景に、首都圏の様々な祭りに参加。担ぎ手が十分な鳥越祭でも、多くの集団が集まってくる。
主催者側は今年、ルールを破った担ぎ手たちのグループは、認められている部分での参加も来年から禁止するなどのペナルティーを科すことに決めた。ただ、同好会には暴力団とつながる団体もあるとみられ、呼びかけが成果につながるかは未知数だ。

“The unauthorized entry is thought to be mainly by part of a group of people called the Doyukai carrying the mikoshi. The Doyukai participate in different festivals in the Tokyo area, as there is a shortage of manpower in some areas to carry the mikoshi. But many of the groups (in the Doyukai) come for the Torikoe Festival, even though there are enough bearers.

“The sponsors have decided to impose penalties on those people carrying the mikoshi who break the rules, including prohibiting their participation next year. But the Doyukai has member groups thought to have yakuza connections, so it remains to be seen (whether the organizers’ efforts) will be successful.”

The police have asked the organizers to reduce the scale of the festival or eliminate the last part entirely if the disturbances escalate this year. For their part, the organizers say they are determined to continue the festival tradition and return to an event that doesn’t require a fence.

Who can blame them? The tradition is more than a millennium old and well worth maintaining. The yakuza like to say they are trying to preserve centuries-old Japanese institutions and ways of life. Will their reckless willfulness cause the abandonment of one of Japan’s more appealing traditions?

And why are the police taking a strong stand at the Sanja Matsuri, but cutting back on their involvement in the Torikoe Festival in the same area just three weeks later?

For an idea of the players involved, here’s the website for the Torikoe Shrine with a brief English explanation of the festival and some photos. The bruisers pictured on this Japanese-language website are the members of the “Association for Enjoying the Torikoe Festival”. The author of the page thinks they’re a great bunch of guys who make a positive contribution to the festival atmosphere, and only talk tough to hide their intrinsic bashfulness. See what you think. I’m not so sure I’d agree with that last part.

And don’t miss this Japanese-language site with plenty of great photos of the Torikoe Festival itself, including scenes at night.

Readers interested in checking out the newspaper articles should do so quickly—links to Japanese newspapers are as ephemeral as cherry blossoms.