Vendor Maiko Yamazaki got here to the fifteenth annual Aki Maturi Festival in Henderson on Saturday, hoping to promote a few of her wares, together with colourful purses and luggage made with Japanese material.
“Lots of people come here,” she stated of the pageant, held on the Water Street Plaza.
Yamazaki runs an Etsy store known as Zakka Ya Green Lotus that together with the luggage and purses, sells different gadgets together with handmade jewellery and painted by hand kitsune masks.
And the favored pageant attracts potential prospects, she stated.
“It helps my small business,” Yamazaki stated.
Founded in 2010, the pageant goals to deliver consciousness to the rising Japanese inhabitants in Southern Nevada, in accordance with organizers.
“I want Japanese culture to carry on,” stated Mayumi Coffman, the pageant’s organizer. She stated the occasion is a method to hold Japanese tradition alive.
The occasion held a Haiku contest, accepting submissions for the famed three-line poem construction. Organizers additionally provided Odori workshops, instructing individuals how you can do a Japanese people or theater dance.
The pageant featured greater than 60 meals and neighborhood distributors, who offered a wide range of clothes and different items, together with kimonos, straw hats, jewellery and painted by hand kitsune (or fox) masks.
‘Moving with the flow of things’
Teachers and college students additionally offered aikido, a type of martial arts, on a stage. Arlene Mendibles defined that the defenders transfer in the identical route as their attackers.
“Aikido is a way to interact with the world,” Mendibles advised the Review-Journal, “It’s kind of a way to flow through the world.”
“It’s learning to move with the attacks and not fight attacks on a philosophical level. It’s a way to move through the world with as little conflict as possible,” Mendibles defined.
One mother or father watching the present, Maria Hernandez, 39, stated she was considering of enrolling her youngsters in this system.
“I like the idea of moving with the flow of things,” Hernandez stated, “I think they’ll be learning lessons that’ll be used later on in their lives.”
There aren’t any aikido competitions close by, so the pageant has grow to be the centerpoint for college kids to showcase expertise discovered all year long, Mendibles stated.
A go to from a Mikoshi
The pageant additionally offered a possibility to hold a standard Mikoshi, a conveyable shrine that transports a deity. The gold Mikoshi, reflecting the solar, drew gazes from festivalgoers.
The Mikoshi weighs 1,000 kilos and requires a number of folks to hold it. Tak Ishidn, the proprietor of the Mikoshi, stated he purchased and shipped the Mikoshi straight from Japan and solely shows it in public on the Aki Matsuri Festival.
Ishidn stated that the Mikoshi is supposed for gods to go across the metropolis to satisfy folks and unfold good luck.
“People who know the Japanese culture, they are surprised that we have it,” Ishidn stated.
People are shocked as a result of there are just a few in America and Mikoshis which can be in Japan have lengthy ready lists for individuals who wish to carry it, stated Ishidn.
Ishidn, nevertheless, was looking out for volunteers who wish to carry the Mikoshi.
At one of many cubicles, Jodie Cohen defined a shortened model of a standard tea ceremony. A typical ceremony is over 4 hours, she famous.
“The tea ceremony incorporates many parts of Japanese culture like woodworking, metalwork, calligraphy and architecture,” Cohen stated.
Saturday’s pageant marked their second time attending the occasion, she stated, noting that they returned to proceed spreading appreciation of the Japanese tradition.
Contact Annie Vong at avong@reviewjournal.com. Follow @annievwrites on X.