JAPAN Forward

Sometimes, traditions have hidden histories to uncover. Other times, the origins can be surprisingly obvious and yet reveal how a traditional celebration has survived in the modern age.

This was the case when I found out about a particular festival that takes place every year in Kanazawa. It’s called Kaga Tobi Matsuri.

The festival is essentially a performance of men dressed in Edo-style clothes, showcasing athletic skills which would have been the ABCs for a firefighter in the era of Edo Japan.

The performance is a spectacle to behold. In Kanazawa Castle Park, full-grown men climb 41 six-meter-tall ladders and in unison perform “Hashigo Nobori,” meaning the “ladder acrobatics.” The event is peppered with cries of “EI” “YA” to galvanize both performers and spectators.

Interestingly, Kanazawa’s Kaga Tobi Matsuri isn’t the only celebration of its kind. Japan has, in fact, a very long history of firefighting going back to the Edo period.

The city of Edo was one of the largest metropolis in the world in the 18th century, with just over one million inhabitants. Fires were so frequent in the city built mainly out of wood and paper that a famous proverb went, “Fires and fights are the flowers of Edo.”

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