An expectant hush descends as the line of 20 armor-clad samurai, their clan banners flapping in the stiff breeze, take up position in the clearing. With skilled precision they load their matchlocks and, on a given command, raise them and fire. The sound reverberates around the surrounding hills as the warriors begin reloading.
Not, as it may seem, a scene from a Kurosawa movie -- but just one of the spectacles that can be witnessed live (ammunition excepted) at the 38th Nagashino Nobori Matsuri (Banner Festival) taking place in Aichi Prefecture on Monday, May 5.
Staged as the culmination of a series of Golden Week events, the festival is not only steeped in tradition, but also positively oozes history, its purpose being to commemorate the kassen (decisive battle) of Nagashino on May 21, 1575, on the very site where the castle then under attack once stood -- though the main engagement that day 428 years ago was actually 2 km away at Shitarabara, in what is now neighboring Shinshiro City.