As we've covered in the past, Halloween has caught on in Japan - come October, you'll see people in costumes, wherever you go.

However, it turns out that Japan had a costume event already.

This is a drawing from the Edo period (1603-1868), and here's a man wearing a costume of an octopus!

This drawing was by an Ukiyoe artist Hiroshige Utagawa depicting an occasion called "Nijyurokuya-machi."

What is a Nijyurokuyamachi?

Nijurokuya-machi is a moon-watching event held on July 26 (on the old calendar). According to the legend, three honorable figures - Amida, Kanon and Seishi - appears on this day; you will be fortuitous if you worship them.

For this reason, many people waited for the moon to rise while eating and drinking.

In addition, they had many "shacks" (like today's fast food stores) lined up, as well as fireworks. In other words, it was a party-like occassion.

Apart from the "octopus man", there are fashionable guys as well as people with musical instruments. While we can never know for sure, there might have been full of people on costumes!

Historians have no idea why this guy was wearing an octopus costume, by the way...