CFAY keeps tradition alive with Mini-Mikoshi parade

Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Kaleb Sarten | YOKOSUKA, Japan (Oct. 23, 2021) Participants carry their Mikoshi, a type of portable shrine, during Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka's (CFAY) Mini-Mikoshi parade at Berkey Field. The Mikoshi were made and carried by various community groups and organizations during the parade. For more than 75 years, CFAY has provided, maintained, and operated base facilities and services in support of the U.S. 7th Fleet's forward deployed naval forces, tenant commands, and thousands of military and civilian personnel and their families. (U.S. Navy photo by MC2 Kaleb J. Sarten)  

YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JAPAN

10.23.2021

Story by Ryo Isobe 

Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka

For the past year and a half, members of the Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) community have endured restrictions due to COVID-19. While the state of emergency in Kanagawa was lifted Oct. 1, the pandemic still lingers, and continues to influence local celebrations and customs.

Due to this continuing health crisis, Sailors and their families onboard CFAY have missed many events, including big cultural-exchanges and open-base events, such as Spring Festa and Friendship Day. On top of that, they are also going to miss the Yokosuka Mikoshi Parade this year.

As a result of the pandemic, the last time the event took place was in 2019, when the festival marked its 43rd anniversary. Again this year, CFAY will not have the opportunity to host the festival, despite the lifting of the state of emergency.

The Yokosuka Mikoshi Parade is one of the biggest festivities of Yokosuka, attracting more than 9,000 participants with its processions of mikoshis, or movable and miniature shrines, floats and various performances. More than 20,000 spectators, locals and tourists alike visit Yokosuka for this annual celebration held in late September or early October.

The parade, consisting of about 60 Japanese mikoshis gathered from various areas, wards, and districts in Yokosuka, proceeds from Keikyu Yokosuka Chuo Station, down Blue Street in Ohtaki-cho, through CFAY’s Womble Gate, down Nimitz and Clement Boulevards, to the parking lot in front of the Purdy Gym. What makes it unique, particularly here in Yokosuka, is that approximately 60 CFAY members bear their own mikoshi, which represents the CFAY community as a part of the local community.

Mikoshi, a portable Shinto shrine, is a highly elaborate palanquin-like structure sitting on two, or sometimes four, horizontal beams to be carried. Inside the mikoshi resides a divine presence from the local shrine. The shrine is then uplifted on the carriers’ shoulders and paraded around the community at festivals in order to bring well-being, fertility, and prosperity; or to pacify malevolent spirits which cause epidemics. Its roof is often decorated with an elaborate gilded phoenix or lanterns on which names of honorable contributors to the event are written.

Historically, the first recorded use of mikoshi was the transfer of the sea deity of Hachiman Shrine in Kyushu by a palanquin to Nara, where the deity was intended to safeguard the construction of the Great Buddha at the Todaiji temple in 749.

The CFAY community’s inclusion in the Mikoshi Parade first began in 1992, when the event became an open-base event, designating CFAY as the mikoshis’ destination. According to Yuta Kinoshita with the Yokosuka Tourism Association, until 1992, a road on Yokosuka Pier was used as a rendezvous point. However, after the pier was made unavailable in 1992, CFAY accepted Yokosuka City’s request to include the base as a gathering point of mikoshis. That same year, the Minami Sano Mikoshi Preservation Society of the Yokosuka mikoshi management organization gave the CFAY community the honor of carrying a mikoshi of their own, representing CFAY.

From 1992 through 1996, USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) had a mikoshi of its own after an officer assigned to the ship coordinated with his neighbors in Taura-cho, Yokosuka. His involvement in the event, along with ship-wide interests led him to coordinate with Taura’s Mikoshi Association resulting in the ship’s participation in the event.

In 1997, a special mikoshi was designated exclusively for the CFAY community, prepared by the Minami Sano Mikoshi Preservation Society of Yokosuka’s Minami Sano area. Lanterns, which adorn the roof of the mikoshi, represent CFAY, its tenant commands and the base’s organizations. Except for the day of the festival, the mikoshi is stored, repaired and maintained on a regular basis by Japanese neighborhood volunteers.

Since bearing the mikoshis and chanting must follow the customs and rules of the festival and tradition, participating Sailors and other team members undergo a number of trainings before the festival, which are provided by local Japanese volunteers.

A series of chants or yells, “Washoi! Washoi!” are heard in unison with the movement of the mikoshi in the procession as the mikoshi bearers cheer, keep pace with one another, and strengthen their team work. The chants and movement of mikoshi during the festivals vary depending on the area or region.

The mikoshi represents various Yokosuka parish shrines, carried by parishioners of the city’s wards, often followed by a dashi, or decorated float from which festive music, called ohayashi, is played. A wide range of entertainment, including work songs, on-the-ladder acrobatics, dances and drum performance are also showcased during the parade.

Instead of having Mikoshi Parade as an open-base event, CFAY children have had their own mini mikoshi parade for the past two years on base, where they showcase what it looks and feels like celebrating the autumn the Japanese way.

This year volunteering children of schools and facilities onboard CFAY and the Ikego Detachment, including the Sullivans Elementary School, Child Development Center and Child Youth Programs participate in a mini mikoshi parade with decorated floats, hosted by Morale Welfare and Recreation Yokosuka department at Berkey Field Oct. 23.

For more than 75 years, CFAY has provided, maintained, and operated base facilities and services in support of the U.S. 7th Fleet’s forward-deployed naval forces, tenant commands, and thousands of military and civilian personnel and their families.

• Date Taken: 10.23.2021
• Date Posted: 11.03.2021 23:51
• Story ID: 408656
• Location: YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP