In modern times, the Saijō Festival features more than 120 danjiri, a kind of festival juggernaut, mikoshi portable shrines, and taikodai drum wagons. The biggest drum wagon is over five meters high and weighs about two and half tons. The festival involves pushing these immensely heavy structures through the streets of the city, gathering here and there for displays called kakikurabe, which translates roughly as ‘comparing who can trolley about with the most glory and bravado’. Not content with wheeling the juggernauts up and down in various formations, they’re also hoisted into the air by one hundred men or more, who struggle and grunt under the four huge poles that support the danjiri. Much beer and sake is consumed to keep everybody in tip-top kakikurabe condition.

Besides their enormous size, the danjiri and mikoshi are notable for their dynamic carving and quilted reliefs, and their brocade decorations and tassels. When they’re lit up at night with numberless lanterns, they present a fantastic spectacle indeed.