Nagoya Festivals

With the rainy season and the humidity ramping up like an overly-confident Evil Knievel, June is perhaps one of the least favored months in Japan. However, with that said, this combination of conditions is precisely what is required for one of the more beautiful, natural sights: the glow of the firefly. In her 1002 CE book Makura no Soshi (The Pillow Book), Sei Shōnagon, a retainer to Empress Consort Teishi, mused how elegant one feels when surrounded by the summer’s fireflies. But this fascination is not solely the preserve of ladies of Heian period courts, but to this day, in Japan, as much as spring means cherry blossoms, summer means fireflies. For many Japanese, the viewing of fireflies has a nostalgic effect, casting their minds back to childhoods, perhaps sitting on their grandparents’ porch, watching them dance in the dusk as in these opening credits for popular TV show Hotaru no Hikari (Glow of the Butterfly), or of this elementary school song of the same name, popularized in the Meiji era to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. For many children living in Nagoya, the bright lights and the hustle and bustle of the city mean that their chances to see these beautiful…