Shall I crush it?” “I’ll sink it! Volunteer management organization on the verge of “disintegrating in mid-air” due to infighting at Osaka’s Tenjin Festival
A major trouble occurred at one of the "three major festivals in Japan" along with Kyoto's Gion Festival and Tokyo's Kanda Festival! A "power-harassed executive" has returned to the board of directors, and angry shouts fly over the precincts... Can the festival be held safely on July 24 and 25?
That’s not right!
Can’t you listen to me?
In June, just before the Osaka Tenjin Festival, one of the three major festivals in Japan, an exchange of angry shouts echoed through the precincts of the Osaka Temmangu Shrine, which hosts the festival.
The Tenjin Matsuri, a summer festival in Osaka, was held on July 24 and 25, the first time in four years that the event, which boasts a history of more than 1,000 years and attracts more than 1.3 million visitors every year to see some 3,000 fireworks displays, would be held normally due to the effects of Corona. However, the Tenjin Festival is facing a crisis even greater than Corona. The Taiko Naka, a volunteer organization that manages the festival, is in danger of collapsing.
It all started with the former secretary-general of Taiko Naka, Mr. X, who privatized the organization and harassed its members. Taiko Naka has about 800 members and 14 directors. The secretary general is the number two person in Taiko Chū, second only to the general secretary, but Mr. X is actually a former gang leader who used to threaten members of Taiko Chū whom he didn’t like, saying things like, ‘Let’s crush them.
At the Tenjin Festival in 1919, Mr. X and his cronies said, “We’ll sink you! An incident occurred at the Tenjin Festival in 1919 in which Mr. X and his cronies threatened to “sink” a mid-level member, and a damage report was filed with the Tenma Police Department, which accepted the incident as an injury case.
When the previous head of the taiko troupe died in 2008, Mr. X began to interfere in personnel matters, even recommending Mr. A, the nephew of the previous head, for the position of head of the troupe. An influential local resident confides, “Mr. X said, ‘Mr. A’s inauguration is a big deal.
Mr. X pushed through the appointment of Mr. A as the new general manager, saying, ‘Mr. A’s appointment is at the request of Tenmangu Shrine, and he was named as the successor in the previous general manager’s will. However, it was later discovered that both the request from Tenmangu Shrine and the existence of the will were outright lies.
In March of this year, Tenmangu took the situation very seriously and forced Taiko Chū to remove Mr. X from his position as secretary-general, establish a constitution that stipulates the procedures for electing officers, and clarify the accounting. The meeting was held at 11:00 a.m. on June 4 to resolve the internal disputes.
