TOCHIGI FIRE DEPARTMENT.
Enka Kyogi Taikai [Fireworks Competition].
Hanabi Taikai: behind the scenes
This charming album of the 1925 fireworks competition in Tochigi City was put together by the town’s fire chiefs, who proudly feature on the first photo. Hanabi taikai ‘firworks competitions’ are very typical feature of Japanese summers, where makers can show off the latest and greatest of fireworks design in front of lots of spectators (usually sat on the beach).
The album provides a record of the competitions with various groups of judges, dignitaries, and the local population gathering in the fields to watch and judge the performances during the day and at night. The large balls - shown with their maker and his apprentice during the festival and with the family in last photograph - are called two-shaku balls which are over 60cm in diameter and could weigh up to 90kg. They were launched from metal mortars which are buried into the ground and carry a highly explosive propellant at the bottom. Tochigi became one of the centres for firework production using colourful chemical compounds in their shells.
