Here in Japan, almost every locale has at least one festival or matsuri in late summer/early autumn, usually related to the rice harvest. Even here in suburban Tokyo, where local shopping district holds such matsuri for two days, one for children and one for the real adult matsuri.

It depends on the type of matsuri, but often, as in this Tairamachi Matsuri, a mikoshi (a divine palanquin, also translated as portable Shinto shrine) is carried around the neighborhoods that worship the shrine.

Shinto followers believe that the mikoshi is a vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving the mikoshi between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival. Often, the mikoshi resembles a miniature building, with pillars, walls, a roof, a veranda and a railing and is usually lavishly decorated, and the roof might hold a carving of a phoenix.

Photos are from the children’s version of the autumn festival in Tokyo suburb. Carrying a small scale mikoshi and being treated with some snacks and drinks from the local store owners.