Dating back 700 years, this matsuri celebrates the legend of the effigies of two dragons that were built to pray for rain by local famers following a terrible drought. The gods answered the peoples’ prayers, but forgot to turn off the taps and it rained non-stop for two years.
The locals then performed a lion dance at the local temple to call on the gods to stop the rain, which they promptly did.
The festival involves two local men being placed in straw tubes to imitate the dragons
and are then dragged through the streets blowing conches while locals drench them with huge quantities of to symbolise the rains.
They are dragged through the streets of this suburb of Tokyo to the local temple, where a lion dance is then performed to celebrate the end of the rains.
Traditionally held on July 14th to mark the end of the rainy season, this absolutely fantastic matsuri is totally unique in that it is the only one of its kind to pray for rains to stop (of course, there are many harvest-related festivals to pray for plentiful rain).
No of other foreigners apart from me: five
NB Some black and white photos from the festival can be seen on my flickr stream:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156055091@N04/
myjapantravels 
When you say dragged…… How? By men or cart?
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By men!
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