Osaka’s danjiri festivals have been going on for centuries. Instead of the usual shoulder-carried mikoshi portable shrines you see at a lot of Japanese festivals, these use big wheeled carts — danjiri — that teams of people pull through the streets at a full sprint. The carts can weigh up to around 4,000 kilograms (nearly 9,000 pounds), and the most dramatic part of the event is when they try to take tight turns at intersections. That maneuver is called yarimawashi, and because the carts are top-heavy and don’t corner especially well, groups of people called takari hang off the sides to shift the weight and try to keep everything upright.
It doesn’t always work.
On October 10, two separate danjiri crashes in Osaka Prefecture killed two men on the same day. In Izumisano, a cart tipped over less than 15 seconds after it started running, crushing a 51-year-old takari underneath it. He died from the injuries. A couple of hours later and about 15 kilometers away in Izumiotsu, another cart flipped while making a turn, killing a 48-year-old takari who was also crushed beneath it. Seventeen other participants were injured across the two incidents, some with broken bones.
Danjiri crashes aren’t new. For years they’ve been treated a bit like wrecks in stock car racing — something that happens, adds to the spectacle when nobody gets seriously hurt, and gets shared in compilation videos. But two deaths in one day has a lot of people questioning whether the tradition, which dates back to at least the early 1700s, should continue in its current form.
Comments online have ranged from “they should just stop doing this” and “what does high-speed cornering have to do with praying for a good harvest?” to arguments that the participants know the risks and that the local culture values the sense of community and respect that comes with taking part. Others have suggested practical changes: make the carts lighter, reduce the number of people hanging on them, change the routes, or just pull them slower.
Streets and infrastructure have also changed a lot since the festivals started. Paved roads, tighter intersections, and modern obstacles like utility poles weren’t part of the original setup, and speeds are higher now as a result. The two deaths have at least put pressure on organizers to look at whether there are ways to keep the tradition going without as much chance of people getting killed.