We went back to ancient times last weekend when we visited a Renaissance Fair taking place in Ishpeming. And we learned something: There were samurai during the Renaissance.
The event is the Ishpeming Art Faire & Renaissance Festival (held along with a gem and mineral show; the area has a long mining heritage, after all). From that quote I included in a recent post, I had been thinkinh I might see axes being thrown around, beer or related beverages and bosoms.
So here's that scoreboard: I did see bosoms. But those were mostky among the spectators, not the participants. Again, I kept in mind that this is the conservative/repressed U.P., so my expectations were as modest as the medieval maidens.
Beer? Ale? Mead? I did not see a drop of the stuff. Maybe I caught a glimpse of someone with a wine bottle--but nearly all the drinks there were the kind sold and distributed by our local Coke and Pepsi distributors, along with a few energy drinks thrown in for the cutting-edge crowd.
Throwing axes? Yes! I did see that. In fact, that was the first thing I saw. I came upon an area where a young woman was collecting $1 for three ax or spear throws. Most of her clientele were young males, like this dude. They were aiming at stumps nearby ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Axthrow-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Other kids were aiming arrows at targets ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Arrowshoot-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Most of the fair was in a triangle-shaped city park along a lake, where they had booths of artisans and vendors along the outside. One of the first booths was a blacksmith, where a guy with a Scots accent gave a humorous description of what smiths do ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Blacksmith-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
The walkway was mostly populated by vendors. Jewelry and weapons were very popular. Here are some of the weapons available for sale at one booth ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Weapontable-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Looks like free trade has enabled new nations to enjoy the benefits of the Renaissance ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Pakblade-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Several booths (at least three) had walking sticks for sale. Here are some of the more artistic creations. Actually, I was thinking about getting a less artistic (and less costly) stick ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Walksticks-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
They also had many beautifully carved wooden boxes ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Woodboxes-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
As I suspected, there were a great many kids on the scene. This was a one-day event taking place in a city park in the U.P., so inevitably many of the activities were skewed towards the kiddies. Here, some knights led a youngster-powered dragon around the grounds ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Kiddragon-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Here is a table with some of the medieval stuff. Several local groups affiliated with the [URL="http://www.sca.org"]Society for Creative Anachronism[/URL] took part in the event ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-WeapTable-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
My tour of the park/booths was interrupted by David, who had gone off wandering by himself. He came back and informed me that the knights were about to battle. Well, hey! Camera in hand, I broke off to see what was about to go down.
There were five knights. They seemed about college-age, from what I could tell. They had several battles--when someone gets a good hit on you with the padded weapons, you were supposed to go down. And so the combat went on for a while ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SwordA-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SwordB-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SwordC-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
There were some impromptu battles, too, featuring unarmored warriors ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-GirlSword-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
OK, that was cool. Something cooler was next. Back across the street, the samurai demonstration, "Knights of Nippon," was about to start. The samurai (all two of them) led the next kiddie march and then returned ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SamuraiA-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
How about those outfits? The helmets look like Toshiro Mifune in "The Hidden Fortress."
This is a group ([URL="http://www.kojokan.com"]Kojokan Shinbutai[/URL]) from Iowa City, Iowa, led by a dad and his son (about 17; he has been training for most of those years). The dad runs a samurai martial arts group, and he talked about the samurai and how they trained, about their weapons and how they fought. The idea, he explained, was to end their fights as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This was way cool, at least to me. I'm a big fan of the Kurosawa/Mifune movies ("Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo," etc.) and of classic samurai movies in general. I've got many of them on DVD. So when he talked about how they trained with the katana (the long sword), I listened closely. The boy and his dad did some sparring with their very real katanas ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SamuraiB-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
... and with bo sticks ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SamuraiC-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Later, the boy showed what he could do with his blade, working on a rice straw target ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-SamuraiD-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Yes, he was quite impressive. (I only wish my photos weren't so washed-out--I noticed too late that I had reset one of the controls for dark shooting conditions earlier and had not changed it back. The pictures are OK--but they could have been better if I had the control set correctly.)
From the samurai, I went back to the main area. We got some very sloppy cheeseburgers for lunch (they just ladled cheese goop atop the burgers; what a mess!). Nearby, a group called Log Jam was performing. This is a drumming/percussion group, and they were impressive, too. As I watched and listened, I thought of the videos Chandra Moon has been posting here of various drumming groups she takes part in. My camera only takes stills, like this one of Log Jam in action ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-LogJam-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
Then something new. The girls got to take center stage. With swords! Barefoot girls with swords! They positioned the swords crosswise on the grass ... and started dancing to bagpipe music, hopping nimbly around the blades (which were made of wood). These girls are from a Scottish piping and dance class that meets in the Marquette/Ishpeming area, and they sure knew their stuff ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Ren08-Sworddance-8-08.jpg[/IMG]
That was about the end of the show for us. We had to do a little shopping (just a little) and then drove home.
For a one-day show, I think it was about as good as it could be. The samurai were strange to find at a Ren Fair, but obviously I enjoyed them. For next summer, I'm thinking about the larger Ren Fairs that take place around the Midwest, with events more skewed towards adults. I found Ren Fairs near Detroit; near the Twin Cities; in western Wisconsin, near Eau Claire; and just north of the Wisconsin-Illinois state line.
It's something that slipped my mind this summer, with the other things we wanted to do. I hope I can give that more attention next year.
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