Kawagoe matsuri

   A festival held in its full form every other year at the Hikawa jinja, Saitama. It features huge, richly decorated floats which clash at night in the centre of town in an exciting ceremonial contest called hikkawase ('pulling against each other'). As the floats collide noisy hayashi bands compete to make the bearers of the rival float lose their rhythm. The floats are said to be replicas of those used at the Kanda matsuri before tall floats were banned from Tokyo in the late Meiji period.