Near the end of March, we begin to see the flowers bloom and cherry blossoms thriving. This time of year also marks the beginning of Haru Matsuri, an annual Japanese festival celebrating the year’s spring blossom.
On Saturday, March 22, the Japanese Student Association (JSA) is hosting its fifth annual Haru Matsuri in the Quiet Side of Commons from 5 to 8 p.m.
The Beacon sat down with JSA’s Matsuri Chairs Randall Tamura, Nanami Taono and Misaki Kaneko in a Q&A to speak more on the tradition and how UP gets to celebrate it.
The Beacon: What does Haru Matsuri celebrate?
Tamura: “Haru Matsuri” is a literal translation of Spring Festival. Haru, meaning spring, and Matsuri, meaning Festival. The whole event [is] just basically a festival that would typically be like seen in Japan, where we have food vendors, we have entertainment and we have a lot of games.
The Beacon: What kind of activities will there be at JSA’s Haru Matsuri celebration?
Kaneko: [We’re having] several games. So that includes Kendama, which is this wooden toy with a ball with a string. Then we have Kingyo Sukui, which is kind of fishing out these little goldfish, which usually are alive and you can keep, but we have props for that. We also have Senbonbiki, which is this box, and it's kind of like a mystery pull. So there's these strings, and they're kind of attached to these prizes, and you can pull them. There’s gonna be top three prizes — we have Pokemon cards, which are very popular right now. Then we have the matcha kit, which is imported from Hawaii, which comes with a powder and the size, Muji pens and also a lot of plushies and snack prizes.
The Beacon: What kinds of food will be offered?
Taono: We have four vendors [coming] in — Takibi, Tanaka Sando, 808 Grinds, HeyDay and Ding Tea. Tanaka Sando has katsu sandwiches, 808 Grinds is Hawaiian food, HeyDay [is bringing] mochi donuts and Ding Tea [is bringing] signature milk tea and fruit tea.
The Beacon: What performances are planned for the evening?
Tamura: The first will be Chado, which translates to“the way of tea.” So we'll have a tea ceremony performance in which we will be serving matcha to some of the audience members for free. There's a lot of guest etiquette that comes with it, as well, from my personal experience of taking Chado classes in Japan. I’m very passionate about it, and I have a lot of experience, and I had a really fun time contacting and working with the Chado performers. The next performer would be karate. They'll be doing a karate demonstration, where they'll just be condensing a class by taking the main parts of it and then explaining throughout. Then, our last performance will be Taiko, which [are] Japanese traditional drums. It's really lively, it gets really loud, and I think a lot of people really like that one. We were very fortunate to get [professional] performers this year.
The Beacon: What kind of work goes into planning an event like Haru Matsuri?
Kaneko: Starting at the end of the first semester, and the beginning of the second semester, we're having workshops. As Matsuri chairmen, we do oversee the Matsuri, but the whole club is pretty much responsible for the whole planning. So we all come together and help with making posters or making games and ideas.
The Beacon: Who can attend the event?
Tamura: It’s a space where we want to share our culture, make a safe space for other Japanese people to come together, as well as other people who want to learn about Japanese culture. I feel like it's a really safe and inclusive space to do so.
For more information on JSA’s Haru Matsuri, click here.
Kripa Manoj is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at manoj28@up.edu
