Back in Time-October Events 2

10-18-15

Bullfighting Festival!

Okinawa loves their festivals as well as their bullfights. There is a bullfight that takes place just about every Sunday somewhere on the island and this special festival took place right near our house. The Ishikawa Multi Purpose Dome is one of the largest bull arenas and this event just happened to be FREE too. How could we not go? This is not the bullfighting you are probably thinking of. This is a fun event for adults AND children. These bulls are well taken care of and respected and they do not want any of the bulls to get harmed.

Two bulls enter the ring and their handlers have them on ropes. The bulls meet heads and lock horns, the fight begins. The fight continues (bulls head to head) until one of them turns away. We watched 12 different bullfights and each was a different amount of time. The shortest seem to only take a minute and the longest lasted over five. The winning bull stays in the ring and is draped in a special blanket, decorative ribbons or rope is placed on their horns and then the owners dance around the ring, sometimes with bottles of Awamori. There were a few young ones even placed on the bull to celebrate. The winners continue to fight to winners until there is a championship round where one bull wins it all. I know bulls are a very large animal, but it wasn’t until we were leaving and had to stop because a bull needed to cross our path when their true size really sunk in. We all quickly hid behind Preston!

I should mention that before the bullfighting started the festival began with traditional performances from Eisa dancers, Shishimai (lion Dance), and Okinawan drummers. I love the music at these events. Maybe I can find a cd somewhere to bring it back home to the states with me?  

                                                                    

Ishikawa multi purpose dome

       

The arena

Getting excited for it to start

 Thought the bulls were going to hit this golden ball

Uruma Bullfighting Festival (guessing that is what is says)

 This guy did not want to fight at first

 Or he was just putting on a very funny show for us

 The winner and a little guy

 Fierce

 This handler was very excited

 Cheering on her bull

 Excuse me, bull crossing

Going into the dome

 

I hope I have figured out this video thing now, but if I haven't I included the youtube links that should also take you to watch the video. *update: looks like you have to use the links  

 

These were my favorite dancers

Link if this video doesn't work: https://youtu.be/oWCP_revg08

 

This is a bull fight

https://youtu.be/ZnH8O5mU4wA

The kids in the background are hilarious. Yes, for each fight they each had to pick a bull as if that bull was them. lol

This is "my bull just won" dance

https://youtu.be/3vf2uU1zdGE

 

                                           This is the type of music I was talking about
                                                  https://youtu.be/kHlvykoGEME