In early February 2020, I attended a 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 and participation prizes 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”).
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!
