Japanese wartime drumming, sumo wrestling, aikido martial arts, and traditional puppetry were all featured at the Japanese Festival, at the Missouri Botanical Gardens this Labor Day weekend.  Ever since its start in 1977, the Japanese Festival has significantly grown over the years to now offer a wide selection of authentic Japanese food, art, music, and cultural entertainment.

“It’s one of the largest festivals celebrating Japanese cultures in the nation,” said Karen Hagenow, the Public Information Officer for the Botanical Gardens.  “It brings Japanese culture and traditions to the Botanical Gardens and links them to our Japanese Garden.”

This year, in celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the Botanical Gardens, the festival had several new special additions.

For instance, Bunraku, the traditional form of Japanese puppetry, was presented for the first time at the festival.  Unlike most puppetry, this form of puppetry involves three puppeteers for each puppet, who stand on stage and carefully control the movement of their puppet through an intricate system of levers and rods.  Silently and gracefully, the beautiful ornate puppets tell a story through their movements.

Also, this year marks the fifth year of sumo wrestling for the festival.  As a result, a third sumo wrestler participated in the popular sumo wrestling demonstrations.  The sumo wrestlers, weighing around 300 pounds, explained their experiences and told stories about the nearly 2,000-year-old sport.  They show the technique to their fight, wrestle each other, and then, take on a volunteer from the audience.

The festival also continued to host many of its other popular attractions.  For its sixth year, aikido was presented at the festival.

“Aikido represents Japanese martial arts,” said Howard Tweet, an Aikido instructor.  “It’s a good fit for the Japanese Festival as it reminds us of the ancient Japanese tradition of martial arts.”

Other forms of Japanese martial arts including Judo, Karate, and Kendo were also present at the festival.

Thunderous drums are heard every night at the festival, as the Taiko, Japanese drums, took the stage.  Although once used to scare off approaching armies, the drums are now used to entertain visitors at the festival in a booming presentation.

Many other Japanese activities were at the festival including Japanese cooking demonstrations, ice sculpting, and the Candyman, a Japanese street entertaining who magically makes sweet creations.

In addition, this year the festival had a greater selection of Japanese cuisine ranging from sushi to beef kabobs to green tea ice cream.

The festival attracted people of all ages to come and enjoy these great Japanese traditions and cultures.