Gallery: Japan’s Nada Fighting Festival

Portable shrines called yatai and men with bamboo poles march in a parade for the Nada no Kenka Matsuri (Nada Fighting Festival) in the town of Shirahama, in Himenji, Japan. According to Japan’s National Tourism website, the shrines are put on men’s shoulders and knocked against one another at random. Men wearing headbands related to their age then join the fight with bamboo poles. The so-called battle ends when one shrine is hoisted on top of another. The Oct. 15 event is the largest of Japan’s fighting festivals, and is becoming widely known internationally.