A special Japan only New Year celebration: Dezome Shiki

January is my favorite month in Japan. It always surprises people to hear that. The New Year celebrations play a large part in my appreciation and enjoyment of the month of January in Japan. There are so many New Year traditions in Japan. Some are better known than others, such as, the first visit to a shrine or temple, known as hatsumode in Japanese. But there are several practices that might not still be that well known within the foreign community. For example, the Dezome Shiki, which I will introduce in this post.

Dezome Shiki

Dezome Shiki is often translated into a New Year Fire fighters festival. Which is about a fair translation as you can get in a few words. But dezome shiki are one of the Japanese customs that are hard to accurately translate into a few English words. Because we don't really have anything similar in most other countries. It is a fire fighters festival of sorts, but that translation does little to conjure just how special, unique and formidable dezome shiki are. 

The dezome shiki is a festival by fire fighters for fire fighters and a chance for them to demonstrate their capabilities and work to the general public . Fire fighters display their fire fighting and acrobatic skills in various demonstrations. Yes, acrobatic! Traditionally, a large part of the dezome shiki showcased fire fighters acrobatic skills. They would balance on bamboo ladders with jaw dropping prowess. You can still see this element in several dezome shiki around Japan, including at the most famous: Tokyo Dezome Shiki. 

Local dezome shiki

My family and I go to a dezome shiki every year. We've participated a couple of times too. Almost every fire fighting district in Japan has one. A fire fighting district is not necessarily the name of a town or city. Sometimes several towns and cities are in the one fire fighting district. Then there are branches within that district. For example, my small town is not in Kawagoe city, but our firefighting district is Kawagoe. Within the Kawagoe fire fighting district then there are several branches.

We're very lucky that our town does have its own dezome shiki and there is also the Kawagoe dezome shiki too. Having tried several dezome shiki over the years, nowadays we just go to our local one. It doesn't have the ladder acrobats, but it has lots of entertainment. After a ceremony where the fire fighters get a blessing there are various water jet displays, rescue and helicopter demonstrations, stage shows, shishimae performances, live music, dance, mascot characters... etc.

Dezome Shiki is usually held within the first two weeks of January. Most places have a fixed date that doesn't change, so sometimes the dezome shiki is on a weekday. In 2021, most of the dezome shiki in the Kanto plain were cancelled. Hopefully, they will be back in 2022. If you are Japan, but can't get to a dezome shiki in person, you can always watch the Tokyo Dezome Shiki. It is aired on national TV on January 6th every year. 

Have you ever been to a dezome shiki? What is your local one like?