Tamae Hirokawa researched “Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival,” a festival that has continued for 700 years in Fukuoka. Hakata Gion Yamakasa is a rite of the Hakata district’s tutelary Kushida shrine. It has been suggested the festival had its roots in the Kamakura Period seven or eight centuries ago. In a time of pestilence in Hakata, the townspeople are said to have carried the priest Shoichi Kokushi, founder of the Jotenji temple, on a dais to calm the hungry spirits by sprinkling holy water through the streets. Yamakasa is the name of the portable shrines carried through the streets in this festival. Some used to be as much as 16 meters tall, but the installation of overhead wiring made that impractical and the old Yamakasa have since been replaced by the enormous but immobile Kazari Yamakasa and smaller Kaki Yamakasa floats, which are still paraded through town.

“The Yamakasa Imparts Enormous Energy to the Atmosphere,” remarks Hirokawa. She looked at the dolls and components used for the brightly colored decorative mountains and said, “Red is the color of lifeblood. Gold is the color that dances in the light.” The Kazari Yamakasa is designed smaller on top and larger below according to principles of perspective. By altering the sizes of the figures and background according to their height above ground, the Kazari Yamakasa is made to appear even bigger than it really is. She wants as many children as possible, the leaders of the future, to experience the energy of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa. Hirokawa remarks that “The heart is moved by the designs of those who came before us. They provide seeds of inspiration and their craft spirit lives across the eras.”