2. “If it snows, so much the better!”

YABUKI

What kind of people took part in the ceremony when it first started?

SUGAWARA

That was the year we held the 30th anniversary event of the Ugo Beko Matsuri (Ugo Beef Festival). The main participants in that were local city office workers or young people from commerce, industry or farming. There were about 250 people taking part altogether.

YABUKI

Amazing!

SUGAWARA

The beef festival was held in the summer, but I wanted to do my event in the middle of winter. I used to love skiing as a kid, so I thought that since the Nanamagari Pass was closed to traffic in winter, it would be fun to have a ski race there. That’s how the Yukitopia Nanamagari came about. To start with, the Hanayome Dochu took place the evening before this.

YABUKI

I see!

SUGAWARA

But now we’ve dropped the race and the main focus is on the Hanayome Dochu.

YABUKI

It must have been a lot of hard work to set this all up to start with!

SUGAWARA

No doubt about it! The procession goes on a community road , so it was a struggle to convince the public agencies and the local government about doing this, as well as the civil engineering department and the police.

YABUKI

Right!

SUGAWARA

Anyway, I went round pleading with people to let me do this. I had to do a lot of bowing!

YABUKI

Ha!

SUGAWARA

At the time, I was still quite young. I didn’t have much of a reputation or any status in the community. The older people said things like, “Great idea! I love it!” but the people whom I wanted to actually take part in the event said, “I’ve never heard anything like this! It’ll never work!” I had to talk to so many people to convince them. It was really tough.

YABUKI

I can see that the hardest people to convince would the participants themselves. I guess you needed to have them onside with what you were thinking to get them to help you.

SUGAWARA

To begin with when I told them about closing the Nanamagari Pass and walking 12 kilometers in 5 hours in a horse-drawn sleigh, they just said, “Ha! Dream on! You’ll never get this off the ground.”

YABUKI

They just didn’t get it, right?

SUGAWARA

I’d had this notion brewing in my mind for 10 years, so I took it all for granted. But thinking about the practicalities of the whole thing was another issue altogether.

YABUKI

I see what you mean.

SUGAWARA

The Ugomachi Commerce and industry Department really helped me out, but this was a completely new idea for them. Looking back, it seems like only yesterday, but this all happened 32 years ago… The first time we did it, there was a blizzard!

YABUKI

What! Really?!

SUGAWARA

It was a total whiteout. We couldn’t see a thing. But it was still great. We were hooked up by walkie-talkie. When we got to the pass it was just a jumble of noise – the sounds of the snow storm, incoming voices on the radio and our heavy breathing all mixed together! When we reached the end where the ceremony was being held, we had around 1,000 people there waiting for us. It’s normally just completely deserted there! It really was an impressive sight.

YABUKI

Wow…! That’s amazing!

SUGAWARA

Before we got there, we hadn’t realized there were so many people in the village! They all crowded round the sleigh which had just traveled 12km. The sweat was steaming off the horses. When I saw the bride and groom get down from sleigh I thought, “This is so wonderful. We should do this every year!”

YABUKI

Wow!

SUGAWARA

Having walked 12km I was tired out as you’d expect, but it was a pleasant kind of tiredness. People around me were saying, “We’ll have to do this again next year” or “This is so moving. It’s wonderful.” I thought, “Even when I’m gone, someone else will carry on this event in future.” (A tear comes to his eye)

YABUKI

Sure.

SUGAWARA

So you see that’s the origin of the saying, “If it snows, so much the better!”

YABUKI

Wow!

SUGAWARA

I actually think if it doesn’t snow then it’s a bit of a problem. If you can see the tarmac on the road, or it’s raining, then the sleigh doesn’t move, it’s harder to walk, and the atmosphere isn’t as good.

YABUKI

“If it snows, so much the better!” right?

SUGAWARA

It doesn’t matter how stormy it is – having snow is actually exactly what we need for this event.

YABUKI

Well, that’s a different way of looking at it!

SUGAWARA

This is what suits the natural environment of the Tashiro area and Nanamagari…Oh no, I’m welling up again! The Nanamagari Pass has around 49 bends in it. If the national highway was just a straight road, this event wouldn’t really work. This is the only place we can do it.

YABUKI

Right.So whether it snows or not makes a huge difference, doesn’t it?

SUGAWARA

That’s why we need to do so much preparation on the day itself.

YABUKI

I see. I guess even if everything is nicely prepared in advance, it can all end up being buried by the snow…

SUGAWARA

Exactly right! The climax of the event is from dusk onwards so we’re doing all the preparations in the snow from the morning on the day itself – digging holes in the road for the candles, for example.

YABUKI

So much to do! In total you’re preparing for a whole day or two?

SUGAWARA

That’s right. It’s pretty intense…

YABUKI

So it’s a bit of a problem in years when it doesn’t snow much?

SUGAWARA

When that happens we have to spread the snow out. Snow that has been cleared away is piled up on both sides of the road, so we need to break this snow up either by hand or with machines so we can spread it out on the road. The people of the town take the initiative and get together to help out.

YABUKI

Amazing! If you’re all doing this together, I guess it’s a moving experience for everyone, but it must be a really enjoyable feeling as well.

SUGAWARA

That’s right. Every time. It’s so impressive.

YABUKI

Wow!

SUGAWARA

Last year, at the opening ceremony of the Kamaitachi Museum of Art in Ugomachi, the Director of the Regional Promotion Bureau was kind enough to say in his address, “I’ve seen many different events in Tohoku, but nothing as impressive as the Hanayome Dochu!” That was a surprise. I was in tears about that.

From the first time it was held up until now, the Hanayome Dochu has always been a communal effort on the part of the whole town. Next, we’re going to talk about “Snow” which is the focal point of this event and the relationship that people who live here have with the snow.