Jeffrey Jones

So on Sunday it was the Ieyasu Tokugawa Parade. If you don’t know who this Tokugawa bloke is, he is the man who basically finally united (conquered) Japan and was the first in the long line of Tokugawa Shoguns.

As you might expect from a man who rose to his position he wasn’t exactly the nicest of guys but his achievements are still celebrated around Japan.

As the saying goes “History is written by the winners” and Tokugawa was definitely a winner which explains a lot. He was born in the town of Okazaki where I am now living which also explains the yearly parade. (It is also this town’s only claim to fame basically.)

The Parade commemorates the Battle of Sekigahara specifically which was the victory that cemented Tokugawa’s rise to power. You can read all about it on Wikipedia

The Parade

The parade itself is a march through the streets of Okazaki and a mock battle fought at the end. All the participants (I reckon about 150) don armour and arms from the Tokugawa period. The students of my school are invited each year to take part and there was no way I was going to miss out on living out my “Last Samurai” fantasies minus that Scientologist fruit-loop Tom Cruise.

Before I go on, you can see some photos from the day here

That armour was surprisingly light but it was a bit uncomfortable after 3 or so hours. The straw shoes that we had to wear should be banned under the Geneva Convention. They were the single most painful thing I have ever had the misfortune to strap onto my feet. They were made of coarse straw which didn’t help. At the end of the parade they literally cut the things off with scissors and collected them in big bins. I can only assume to ship off to hell to power the infernal furnaces of suffering or something like that.

The actual march itself was rather fun. We hadn’t really been given much instruction so I started out acting as a Samurai should… Stern, arrogant and superior (Not like me usually, oh no) however I was soon told that I should be waving at the crowd and generally acting unlike a samurai etc…. Noooo problem.

The group of spearmen in front of me were having a right old laugh (Including mock attacking the crowd) so after abotu 30 minutes I ended up having sword/spear fights with them quite regularly.

There were many groups in the parade and I had been chosen to lead my particular group (Which is why I got the natty Samurai armour). I think the reasoning behind this was that I was the only white boy in our group and having seen the reactions of the crowd I am sure it was to get people’s attention.

How people reacted to a white guy in armour leading a troop of samurai varied but the general reaction was. “…hey…what? HEY LOOK IT IS A WHITE GUY point point” Which was a hilarious response. Other responses were:

• Old people clapping me for some reason
• Cameras getting whipped out faster than Davey Crockett on PCP
• Small children alternately laughing or acting scared (Oh yes, fear the reaper little children!)
• Groups of women (young and old) laughing and waving.

All in all it was a rather fun day. If anyone reading this gets the opportunity to try it I definitely recommend it if only for the opportunity to swing swords around all day with no one batting an eyelid.

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