MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The streets of Yanai overflowed, packed with a sea of people who came to the annual Goldfish Lantern Festival which offered food, music and dancing in the streets Aug. 13.
The festival is held annually in honor of the town’s most celebrated product, the goldfish lantern.
Yanai’s streets filled with the thunderous beats of Taiko drums as yukata-clad men and women danced around enormous goldfish floats and lanterns.
Festival attendees laid siege on the rows of stands offering a variety of food from burgers to noodles and fried fish.
Excited children wearing yukatas could be seen pulling thier parents through the crowd to one of the vaious stands selling eccentric masks and minature goldfish lanterns.
“This is great,” said Taka Nakamura, a Yanai local and festival participant. “I look forward to the festival each year with the dancing and food. I always have a great time.”
People struggled through the crowd as they strove to get a good view of the floats passing through the streets.
As night fell and the goldfish lanterns illuminated the streets, the throng of people eagerly awaited the fireworks planned at the end of the festival.
After fireworks lit the night sky up with bursts of purples, blues, reds and whites, the festive crowd broke away laughing and smiling.
Some of the crowd headed to a small local club.
Nakamura said people continue to celebrate in after-parties long into the night once the festival ends.
The origin of the goldfish lantern is a bit obscure with several stories concerning its development.
One source says the lantern began when a starving samurai, unemployed during the Meji Restoration was forced to take on piece-labor to feed his family.
The samurai, believing the goldfish to symbolize prosperity in abundance, decided to take a chance and sell goldfish lanterns.
When the samurai reached the market he sold out within the first hour and had enough money to feed his family and make more goldfish lanterns.
A more likely story, according to the Yanai City Official Web site, states that the unique Yanai lantern originated nearly 150 years ago when Yanai merchants began making goldfish toy lanterns for their children.
The birth of the festival began when the merchants’ yukata-clad children ran through the streets with their goldfish lanterns lighting their way through the summer evenings.
Whatever the origin of the goldfish lantern is, it remains the most celebrated product of Yanai and the centerpiece of this Summer festival.