Watercolor painting of a Japanese festival at night

This is a very old painting. 

I think I painted it in 2011. 

I know it isn’t a particularly good painting. 

But I like this painting because I think it captures the friendly and relaxed atmosphere of a Japanese festival. 

This festival is held at Nagahama in Oita city.

I used to pronounce it “Namahamu” not “Nagahama” because I have a little dyslexia when I use Japanese. 

The result though, as in this case, can sometimes be quite funny because “Namahamu” means raw ham.

And my family often laughs at my silly mispronunciations.

Well, this place is famous for having the first festival of the year in Oita city. 

It is also famous for holding the festival in the rainy season. 

And yes it often rains on at least one day of this three day event. 

A few years later in 2014 I did a series of paintings of this festival in the rain that turned out really well. 

During this event there is a traditional Japanese performance at the shrine in Nagahama.

Below is a painting of this performance.

I think though that this was the New Year festival as the people watching are wearing coats.

That’s all,

Gareth.