F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-029

Kuwana Ishidori Festival (Japan's Loudest Festival)

桑名石取祭（日本一やかましい祭）くわないしどりまつり

The Kuwana Ishidori Festival has earned the self-awarded title "Japan's Loudest Festival," and the award is not ironic. Approximately 40 elaborately decorated festival carts (saikuruma) carrying teams of musicians playing kane (gongs) and taiko drums at maximum continuous volume move through the streets of Kuwana in a procession whose combined sound output, during the Saturday night Shigaku (rehearsal) and the Sunday Honbiki (main procession), has been measured at levels requiring ear protection. The festival is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage; the kane-and-drum combination was specifically designed, historically, to be the loudest possible sound as an offering to the deity — the theory being that the divine receives a greater offering from a greater noise. The result is that approaching the festival from a distance involves a gradual but relentless increase in sound pressure that crosses a threshold around 300 meters from the nearest cart where "loud" ceases to be an adequate description.