Many Countries,

hold festivals at the end of summer,

 and Japan is no exception, Japanese festivals, or matsuri, happen throughout the country, many of them are closely associated to the rice harvest, larger, more notable matsuri often feature processions and elaborate floats, regardless of size, they are documented and passed down to the next generation, Fujifilm has been sponsoring annual photography exhibitions using submissions from photographers around Japan for a number of years, the current exhibition is comprised of 57 photographs from last year’s matsuri season, above a photo from a festival in Hokkaido taken by Hiroshi Wajima (2017), it captures someone dressed as the deity Sarutahiko crossing a sea of flames,

 “natsu-no-omoide” (memories of summer) (2017) by Yoshiki Ogino

  “mankashoku” (full dress ship) (2017) by Takaji Kokubo

 a photo of the elaborate floats of Aomori’s Nebuta Matsuri at dusk (2016) by Sadami Kurematsu

“oni kowai” (afraid of the demon) (2016) by Shigeru Chokichi, the pictures were carefully selected from an astounding 7910 entries, they’re on view at the 2nd floor space of the Fujifilm Photo Salon, which is located in Tokyo Midtown, the exhibition is on view through August 23, 2018 (10AM – 7PM) and entry is free, in addition, Fujifilm and their partner Kitamura are currently accepting entries for photos from this year’s season, have a look here for details, which are unfortunately only in Japanese.