In early February 2020, I attended a very special traditional festival called ‘Yonekawa Mizukaburi’. What makes it special is that recently the festival has been designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage event. And for that, the organizers have been trying to popularize the festival, which is said to have originally begun over 800 years ago, as a major tourist attraction in Miyagi prefecture.

And coincidentally, they also held a photo contest, of which I entered with 2 entries and ended up winning the runner-up prize and participation prize through both of my submissions. Words could not describe how happy I was to receive the news. Note: as of March 31st, perhaps due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the winning entries are not publicized yet on the official Yonekawa town website.

So here’s the winning shot for the runner-up prize, titled 【絆】 (meaning “bond or connection”).

And here’s the other entry that got the participation prize, titled【決心】(meaning “determination”).

決心 (determination) – participation prize

By far, this was the most fun festival I have ever seen, so I will write up the details of my experience in a separate blog article, coming soon. Stay tuned!

Yonekawa Mizukaburi Photo Contest

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Jerfareza Daviano