Ｓｈｏｒｙｕｄｏ
TatekawaYoshirouNaotomi

Dashiand their Decorations
Dashi(festival floats) Create Excitement in People
Japanese people perceive things that are large and things that are beautiful as deities. Starting withmountain worship and other types of nature worship, manmade objects, such as five-storied pagodas
and large Buddha statues at temples, giant burial mounds, and large sacred places have emerged.
The fundamental idea of making such things large and beautiful has always been common sinceancient times with arts and crafts developing during the building process. In addition, the creation ofmagnificent moving shrines known as dashi led to the emotion involved with moving precious
things of the highest level of beauty in front of people’s eyes. This emotion had an impacton
everything from karakuriningyo(mechanical puppetss) to the foundation of technical civilization.

Art Used in the Decoration of Dashi
Among the curtains and carvings used to decorate dashi, not only the excellence of artists’ paintingsand sculpted pieces but also the appeal of the material that expresses his excellence is added,
bringing out the unique beauty that integrates art and craft.
The curtains hung to cover part of the dashibecome giant canvases with many featuring
embroideries of paintings by famous artists. The work of embroidery craftsmen transforms artists’paintings by adding three-dimensional power of expression which makes the creations more
appealing in their embroidered forms. Found around the carvings and curtains are shiny metal
fixtures that serve to accent the overall design, forming a gorgeous “picture frame.” The metal
fixtures allow a deeply detailed design to be seen in a restricted, narrow space.

Large curtain design rough sketch (left) and large curtain (right) belonging to theRikijinsha(festival float) of the Nakagirigumi (Kamezaki)

Inuyama Festival Curtain from Nakahonmachi

Shinmachi Metal Fixtures

Examining How to Look at DashiCarvings
The aesthetic sense of the Japanese has a broad and rich sensibility which can be seen in artistic
achievements from the gorgeous luxury represented by Nikko Toshogu shrine to the quiet simplicity
as expressed by the Katsura Imperial Villa.
The carvings which decorate the dashi can also represent both of those aesthetic extremes. Brilliant
carved works are spectacular and beautiful, like Japanese paintings coming to life in 3D.

Takayama Festival

Float carvings

The plain wood carvings arerealistic, sharp in detail, and deeply expressive. They have a mysterious
charm that makes them looks like real animals or plantsdespite not being painted with other colors.
Using the grain of the wood when making carvings of the human body creates a unique charm which
combines the interesting nature of carving and charm of craft.

Platform section carving of the Kagurasha(festival float) of the Tanakagumi (Kamezaki)Powerful god carvingfound on the Rikijinsha(festival float) of the Nakagirigumi (Kamezaki)

Quails on ears of Foxtail Millet, IshitoriFestival (Kuwana)

Rabbit hole, Ishitori Festival (Kuwana)
In contrast, when we look at carvings from the viewpoint of prayer, we see that arabesque patterns
are often carved on the beams connecting the pillars. This is referred to aswakaba(youngleaves)whichare for future growth and development. Their corners are decorated with lions, tapirs,
and elephants as protectors of the deity.