Taimatsu Akashi 松明あかし

This weekend , we have a fire festival in Sukagawa where is the next town to Koriyama.

This is the 3rd biggest fire festival in Japan, and it is a traditional and historic festival.

150 young people will carry out big torches which have 10 meters in length and 3 tons of weight, and parade in the town

At the night, they set big torches on fire!!
so.... you cannot miss it!

If you wanna know about the history , please look out the following.

I translated this.

今度の土曜日、11月11日は日本三大火祭りの一つ

「松明あかし」が

須賀川で行われます。

昼間は松明・武者行列、夜には何本もの巨大な松明にも火がともされ、迫力があります。

400年もの歴史ある行事です。

ではでは、みんなで行ってみよう!!

（詳しくはこちら）

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Taimatsu Akashi

(The Torch Festival,2nd Saturday in November)

　　In the middle Ages, the Sukagawa Castle was burned by hostile troops. Taimatsu Akashi originates from this and is regarded as one of the three largest fire festivals in Japan. During the day of the festival, large torches,samurai and princess parades are observed and at night large torches are set a light as a reminder of the burning of the Sukagawa Castle.

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416 years ago, in June of 1589.　Masamune Date overthrew the lord of the Aizu Kurokawa castle, Ashina. Encouraged by the success, Masamune planned to attack the Sukagawa castle, and sent secret messengers to other generals.

At the time, the lord of the Suakagawa Castle was the dowager of Moriyoshi Nikaido, Daijyoin. She was Masamune’s aunt. She was a dauntless lady lord. The lord of the Aizu Kurokawa castle, Ashina had a son with her, Moritaka. He was the previous lord. Moritaka had a son, Yoshihiro and he became the present lord. Daijyoin couldn’t surrender to Masamune because he killed her family.

The Nikaido family and the followers who realized Masamune’s plan, lighted their torches, gathered on the east hill and strengthened their determination to defend the castle. That was the night of October 10th.

October 26th, in the gray of the morning, Masamune lead the vast force, built the headquarters on the north side of the Shakado River, which flows from west to east in Sukagawa. Finally, the battle was started and they fought across the river.

The battle places were Daikokuseki-guchi and Amako-guchi. The battles started at 8:00pm.
Even though Masamune’s army was much stronger than Sukagawa’s, the Sukawaga force fought very well. They fought wholeheartedly, but they struggled to their death.
Although Masamune’s force kept sending soldiers, the bloody fight continued. At times, it looked as though Sukagawa might win.

At the Amako-guchi, Sukagawa force won the 1st fight, but Masamune’s back-up soldiers continued to come with great force.

At the same time, one of the follower who suggested that Nikaido be reconcile with Masamune. However, he betrayed Nikaido and set the Nagaroku temple on fire. It was upwind of the castle, so the flame spread, eventually the whole town became a see of flames.

The castle, the Nikaido family, and followers were surrounded by the flames.

The Nikaido and Sukagawa castle, which had held power as a head of the Tohoku South area for 400 years, fall down.

This festival is performed to honor the people killed in action