Natsumoude 2024

As I mentioned last week, I volunteered at Asakusa Jinja’s Natsumoude again this year. Scheduling meant that I was able to be there on the 1^st and 7^th of July, so as well as the Natsumoude goshuin, I was able to get the Tanabata goshuin, which is only available on the 7^th (because Tanabata is July 7^th).

The event is organised by the jinja and a committee created to help run this event, and while they cooperate very closely, their responsibilities are divided. Shinto rituals are done by the jinja, while fun events that are even less religious are run by the committee or people associated with it. I and the other volunteers work directly with the committee, and so I had nothing to do with the rituals. My main job was selling tanzaku, strips of paper on which you write Tanabata wishes. The committee has sourced special ones with images on, including the Natsumoude logo, and they are printed on water-resistant paper. That was particularly important this year, because there was a heavy downpour on the 6^th, and the tanzaku were still hanging on the bamboo, with legible wishes, on the 7^th.

The weather was not kind this year, quite apart from the downpour. It was raining on and off (more on than off) all day on the 1^st, and extremely hot (over 35ºC) on the 7^th. Nevertheless, there were a lot of visitors to the event, many of whom were foreign tourists. As the jinja is in one of Tokyo’s main tourist traps, that was maybe not surprising. However, I first started helping out at this event during the pandemic, when there were no foreigners at all, so it is quite a change. I think there were even more than last year.

This caused me an interesting problem, because I wasn’t sure which language to use to address people. Further, when Asian people addressed me in broken English, I didn’t know whether it was because they couldn’t speak Japanese, or because they thought I couldn’t. I did pay attention to what language groups spoke to each other, but sometimes they came by themselves, or just didn’t talk much.

The number of foreign visitors means that some English explanation is required. On the 1^st, most foreign tourists were just walking past our tent without a second glance, although a few Japanese people were buying tanzaku. This is not surprising, as there was no real reason for tourists to look. So, I wrote a couple of simple posters explaining Tanabata, a committee member added natsumoude clip art, and the jinja printed them out at A3 size and laminated them.

They did seem to work, at least on the 7^th, when it wasn’t raining all the time. We got quite a few foreigners buying tanzaku, as well as a lot of Japanese people. There was no large sign for Japanese people, because they could see the bamboo with tanzaku on, and then look around for the place selling them. Non-Japanese tourists, of course, had no idea what was going on in the absence of an explanation.

The committee has spoken to me about the possibility of producing an English pamphlet for next year, and I think that would be a good idea. A lot of people speak some English, and, for most languages, the machine translation between that language and English is likely to be better than the translation from Japanese. In addition, the English text will not assume Japanese common sense — at least, not if I am writing it.

Even without an English guidebook, however, people did seem to enjoy the event, and the jinja grounds were packed all day, both days, despite the weather.

Natsumoude was started eleven years ago, at Asakusa Jinja, and this year there were about 540 jinja and Buddhist temples participating across the country. It bills itself as a “new Japanese seasonal custom”, and while it isn’t yet, it is on the way there.