I had been longing to watch Ukai for the past few years (you can watch the video from 6:45. It shows how they use the bird, U, for fishing). Just as I imagined, it brought us sensational yet stunning scenes. After watching the video clip, you think Ukai are gross but it was beautiful.
Since I reserved the seats under "Tueller,"they put us on a special foreigner boat with horigotatsu. (They dig into the floor to create chair-like seats so people can still "sit" when they use a Japanese style little table rather than folding their legs.)
Special thanks to my brother, Takuma, and my cousin, Hiromi, and her husband for accompanying us that night.
They are so fun to hang out with and I love them. She has been my great big sister.
Ukai started in the year 702 A.D. It is now a protected occupation by the Japanese emperor. It is only inherited through certain family lines so there were only two family names for U fishermen in Gifu prefecture. So I could not be a U fisherman even if I wanted to. A lot of things were kept in the traditional way, like......
How they move the boat.
Our boat looked like this.
A dancers' boat before the Ukai show.
The signal of the Ukai start was fire works. When the fireworks were shot high in the sky all the hotels along the river side turn off their lights so the flame that the fishermen use became more efficient to scare the fish.
The fishermen continuously move the strings so that the u won't get tangled to each other.
Thanks for the wonderful trip, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment